Heavy Metals in Plants: Physiological to Molecular Approach

397 Pages·2022·13.012 MB·English

by  Jitendra Kumar, Shweta Gaur, Prabhat Kumar Srivastava, Rohit Kumar Mishra, Devendra Kumar Chauhan

Heavy Metals in Plants
Physiological to Molecular Approach
Editors:
Jitendra Kumar
Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences
Dr. Shakuntla Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow, India
Shweta Gaur
DD Pant Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory
Department of Botany
University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
Prabhat Kumar Srivastava
Assistant Professor, Department of Botany
KS Saket PG College, Ayodhya, India
Rohit Kumar Mishra
Research Assistant, Ranjan Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory
Department of Botany
University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
Sheo Mohan Prasad
Professor of Botany and In-charge of Ranjan
Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory
University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
Devendra Kumar Chauhan
Professor of Botany and In-charge of DD Pant Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory
University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India
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A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
Cover credits: Cover illustration courtesy of Dr. Richa Upadhyay
First edition published 2022
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DOI: 10.1201/9781003110576
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Preface
Heavy metals have been used since the beginning of human civilization. Some metals
in the form of macronutrients and micronutrients are essential for plant growth, while
some other metals that have no proven biological role in living beings are toxic
even in trace amounts. Heavy metal insertion into ecosystems has occurred due to
rapid industrialization and anthropogenic activities viz. vehicular traffic and other
petroleum combustions, power plants, refineries, industries and rampant use of metals
in fertilizers. Heavy metal contamination of the earth exaggerates due to unscientific
and unsystematic measures of disposal. Heavy metals are hazardous to ecosystems
due to their toxic nature, long-term persistence and bioaccumulation. The trophic
transfer and consequent magnification of heavy metals in aquatic and terrestrial food
webs are hazardous for living beings. Heavy metal contamination has now become a
global environmental issue. The unplanned use of these metals is rapidly paving the
way for heavy metal-build-up in the environment and is consequently are potentially
toxic and affect both plants and animals.
Heavy metals have adversely affected the food and vegetable crops and other
plants constraining survival, biomass production and yield. Heavy metals generate
reactive oxygen and nitrogen species like superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical,
singlet oxygen, peroxynitrite and nitrogen dioxide, etc., that induce oxidative stress,
consequently, different biomolecules like DNA, proteins, lipids and bio-membranes
are damaged. Heavy metal accretion in the soil is a major issue for agricultural yield
due to their detrimental impact on food safety and market potential and phytotoxicity
induced in crops. The present book extensively covers the prevalence of heavy metals
in our ecosystem, the sources of heavy metals in the ecosystem, their toxicity in
plants, particularly in crop plants, toxicity perception in plants at physiological and
cellular levels, heavy metal induced oxidative stress and antioxidant defence system,
heavy metal detoxification and sequestration in plants, amelioration of heavy metal
toxicity by natural and synthetic hormones. Amelioration by mineral nutrition, i.e.,
ionomic studies, characterization of genes, i.e., genomics and molecular aspects of
metal tolerance and hyperaccumulation, stress-inducible proteins and their roles
under heavy metal stress (proteomics) have also been covered. Along with these
plants with the capability to grow on high levels of heavy metals concentration
(metallophytes) and various phytoremediation techniques like hyperaccumulators
have been dealt.
This book is the result of a concerted effort of many scholars working in different
parts of India along with all the six editors. The compilation of various studies in the
form of an edited book enriches the existing knowledge about metal pollution and
iv Heavy Metals in Plants: Physiological to Molecular Approach
opens newer avenues to be exercised. The students and scholars would find many
studies, researches, reviews of literature, views, opinions in one book. All the editors
thankfully acknowledge their contributions. All the editors gratefully acknowledge
the CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Florida, The USA, which made possible the
book in the present form. We hope that this book will remain relevant for upcoming
many years for the students of stress physiology, environmental sciences, agronomy,
life sciences and crop sciences at the university level.
Jitendra Kumar
Shweta Gaur
Prabhat Kumar Srivastava
Rohit Kumar Mishra
Sheo Mohan Prasad
Devendra Kumar Chauhan
Contents
Preface iii
1. Heavy Metals in our Ecosystem 1
Richa Upadhyay
2. Heavy Metal Contamination in Plants: An Overview 16
Rashmi Mukherjee, Soumi Datta, Dwaipayan Sinha, Arun Kumar Maurya
and Sambhunath Roy
3. Heavy Metal Contamination in Plants: Sources and Effects 50
Savita Bhardwaj, Sadaf Jan, Dhriti Sharma, Dhriti Kapoor,
Rattandeep Singh and Renu Bhardwaj
4. Heavy Metal Contamination in Plants: Present and Future 64
Mamta Pujari, Savita Bhardwaj, Dhriti Sharma, Anju Joshi,
Shivani Kotwal and Dhriti Kapoor
5. Heavy Metal Contamination in Crop Plants 76
Naziya Tarannum and Nivedita Chaudhary
6. Heavy Metal Perception in Plants 92
Dwaipayan Sinha, Arun Kumar Maurya, Shilpa Chatterjee,
Priyanka De, Moumita Chetterjee and Junaid Ahmad Malik
7. Plant Response to Heavy Metals (at the Cellular Level) 125
Arun Kumar Maurya, Dwaipayan Sinha, Kamakshi and
Suchetana Mukherjee
8. Photosynthetic Response of Plants Against Heavy Metals 149
Sujata Rathi, Neha Mittal and Deepak Kumar
9. A Mechanistic Overview of Heavy Metal Detoxification in Plants 163
Kavita Ghosal, Dwaipayan Sinha and Satyendra Pal Singh
1 0. Amelioration of Heavy Metal Toxicity by Natural and Synthetic Hormones 198
Nidhi Verma, Jitendra Kumar and Sheo Mohan Prasad
11. Heavy Metal Sequestration in Plants 215
Rupinderpal Kaur, Bhekam Pal Singh and Yumnam Devashree
1 2. Ionomics vis à vis Heavy Metals Stress and Amelioration 246
Rashmi Mukherjee, Mukul Barwant and Dwaipayan Sinha
vi Heavy Metals in Plants: Physiological to Molecular Approach
13. Understanding Heavy Metal Stress in Plants Through Mineral Nutrients 281
Marya Khan, Ummey Aymen, Ashiq Hussain Mir, Anupam Tiwari,
Sheo Mohan Prasad, Joginder Singh, Praveen C Ramamurthy,
Rachana Singh, Simranjeet Singh and Parul Parihar
1 4. Genomics (Characterization of Genes) and Molecular Aspects of Metal 310
Tolerance and Hyperaccumulation
Aparna Pandey, Sheo Mohan Prasad and Jitendra Kumar
1 5. Stress-inducible Proteins and their Roles under Heavy Metal Stress 323
Ummey Aymen, Marya Khan, Anuradha Patel, Sanjesh Tiwari,
Aman Deep Raju, Sheo Mohan Prasad, Rachana Singh and Parul Parihar
1 6. Metallophytes 354
Ovaid Akhtar, Himanshu Sharma, Ifra Zoomi, Kanhaiya Lal Chaudhary
and Manoj Kumar
1 7. Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals 369
Prasann Kumar, Bhupendra Koul and Monika Sharma
Index 389
1
Heavy Metals in our Ecosystem
Richa Upadhyay
ABSTRACT
Heavy metals pollution has become a global environmental issue as it has
contaminated every sphere of the earth. Due to the increase in population with
rapid growth in industrialization and urbanization metal contamination has
increased at an alarming rate. Metal pollution is caused by both natural and human
activities. Metals are not biodegradable, they are persistent in the environment,
and tend to accumulate in the organism due to biomagnification. The metals
contaminate all ecosystems, affect organisms residing in them, and eventually
deteriorate human health through the successive transfer of metals in the entire
food chain. Since plants can absorb heavy metals from both soil and water, metals
hamper crop productivity and reduce its nutritional value. Thus, metal affects the
health of human beings both directly and indirectly. This chapter explains the
different sources of heavy metal, their forms and distribution in soil, the cycling
of metals in the ecosystem, its trophic transfer through the food chain, its effect
on the different ecosystems, crop productivity, and human health. This chapter
comprehensively deals with the impact of heavy metals on the ecosystem in
different contexts.
1. Introduction
Heavy metal contamination has now become a global environmental issue. These
metals can enter the ecosystem through multiple routes. Because of the tremendous
increase in the use of metals in several fields viz; industry, agriculture, domestic,
and technology, metals have disturbed several ecosystems and hampered the
ecological balance (Masindi and Muedi, 2018). Heavy metals are largely present in
soil and aquatic ecosystems. Some of the metals called micronutrients (Mn, Co, Cr,
Cu, Mo, Se, Fe, and Zn) are essential for plant growth at very low concentrations
Department of Botany, Mihir Bhoj Postgraduate College, Dadri, G.B. Nagar-203207, U.P., India
Email: [email protected]
2 Heavy Metals in Plants: Physiological to Molecular Approach
while macronutrients (Na, Mg, Ca, P, and S) are required in a large amount. While,
some metals (Ni, As, Pb, Cd, and Hg) are toxic even in a trace amount. High metal
concentration in the environment is hazardous to ecosystems due to its toxic nature,
long-term persistence, and bioaccumulation (Conceiçao et al., 2012). The successive
transfer of the heavy metals in the aquatic and terrestrial food web is hazardous
for the residing organism and human health. The metals generate reactive oxygen
species like superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical, singlet oxygen, etc., that induce
oxidative stress by damaging different biomolecules like DNA, protein, lipids and,
bio-membranes, etc. This stress induces inflammation that leads to the development
of different cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and other chronic diseases. In this
chapter, there is a comprehensive description of the effects of different heavy metals
on various ecosystems, crop productivity, and human health.
2. Sources of metal contamination
Metals enter into the ecosystem via natural as well as man-made activities (Fig. 1).
Natural phenomena, i.e., weathering of rocks and volcanic eruptions are the
major cause of metal pollution (Masindi and Muedi, 2018; Shallari et al., 1998).
Environmental contamination also occurs through several anthropogenic sources
viz; petroleum combustion, power plants, refineries, industries, and use of metals
in fertilizers (Arruti et al., 2010). Heavy metals reach the soil through the use
of phosphate fertilizers. In the process of extracting phosphate fertilizers from
Figure 1: Different sources of heavy metals.
Heavy Metals in our Ecosystem 3
phosphate rock, known as acidulation, different heavy metals are produced as a by-
product (Mortvedt, 1996). The application of fertilizers in agricultural soils not only
contaminates the soil but also leaches into groundwater and eventually contaminates
it (Dissanayake and Chandrajith, 2009). Vehicular traffic is one of the key contributors
of metal pollution among different man-made sources (Ferretti et al., 1995). This is
the reason behind the high metal contamination of the soil and plants situated beside
the road in urban and metropolitan areas.
3. Geochemical aspects of the distribution and forms of heavy
metals in soils
The heavy metal presence and distribution in the soil depend on several parameters
such as the composition of parent rock and its weathering, physiochemical and
biological characteristics of soil, and climatic conditions (Arunakumara et al., 2013).
For example, soil receiving fertilizers and Cu fungicide are rich in metal contents
compared to virgin soils (Semu and Singh, 1996). In urban areas, soils possess a high
concentration of Pb (Mackay et al., 2013). Metals such as Pb, Ni, Cu, Cd, Zn, and Cr
are the major soil pollutant (Hinojosa et al., 2004).
Basic knowledge of the heavy metal forms and distribution in the soil is a
prerequisite for soil management practices as well as minimizing metal’s effect
on the ecosystem. Heavy metals may occur in the soil in four different forms—
(a) dissolved, (b) exchangeable, (c) as a structural component of the soil lattices, and
(d) insoluble precipitates. The dissolved and exchangeable forms are utilized first by
the plants while the rest two forms may be utilized later. Different Physico-chemical
properties of soil viz; organic matter content, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC),
quality and quantity of clay particles, and its redox potential determine the soil’s
heavy metal retaining and mobilizing ability. The availability of metals increases
with an increase in these parameters and when the metal concentration reaches above
the threshold, it becomes toxic. The presence of any element in the soil depends on
its equilibrium between the solid and solution state of the soil, which is influenced
by soil pH (Lindsay, 1979). The metal mobility increases with an increase in pH and
attains a peak under mildly alkaline conditions. However, the mobility of different
elements varies under different pH conditions (Fuller, 1977). Heavy metals remain
in a transferrable form with the organic matter complexes and the metal’s affinity for
organic matter varies (Stevenson, 1982). For example, Cu remains in an unavailable
form with complexes, while Cd occurs in the most available form (Kirkham, 1977).
The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soil is determined by the organic matter
content and clay particles. The soils with high clay content have higher CEC that can
retain more heavy metals, e.g., montmorillonite. Thus, it is imperative to determine
the forms of heavy metals (available and unavailable) in the soil to minimize metal
pollution.
4. Cycling of heavy metals in ecosystems
Since metals exist in different forms in the environment and are toxic to organisms,
therefore it is important to understand the biogeochemical cycle of the element.