National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India.
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Physiol Plant. 2021 Sep;173(1):259-275. doi: 10.1111/ppl.13370. Epub 2021 Mar 2.
Heavy metal toxicity is one of the major concerns for agriculture and health. Accumulation of toxic heavy metals at high concentrations in edible parts of crop plants is the primary cause of disease in humans and cattle. A dramatic increase in industrialization, urbanization, and other high anthropogenic activities has led to the accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soil, which has consequently disrupted soil conditions and affected crop yield. By now, plants have developed several mechanisms to cope with heavy metal stress. However, not all plants are equally effective in dealing with the toxicity of high heavy metal concentrations. Plants have modified their anatomy, morphophysiology, and molecular networks to survive under changing environmental conditions. Heavy metal sequestration is one of the essential processes evolved by some plants to deal with heavy metals' toxic concentration. Some plants even have the ability to accumulate metals in high quantities in the shoots/organelles without toxic effects. For intercellular and interorganeller metal transport, plants harbor spatially distributed various transporters which mainly help in uptake, translocation, and redistribution of metals. This review discusses different heavy metal transporters in different organelles and their roles in metal sequestration and redistribution to help plants cope with heavy metal stress. A good understanding of the processes at stake helps in developing more tolerant crops without affecting their productivity.
重金属毒性是农业和健康的主要关注点之一。食用作物中有毒重金属的浓度过高，是导致人类和牛只患病的主要原因。工业化、城市化和其他高强度人类活动的急剧增加，导致重金属在农业土壤中积累，从而破坏了土壤条件并影响了作物产量。到目前为止，植物已经发展出几种机制来应对重金属胁迫。然而，并非所有植物在应对高浓度重金属毒性方面都同样有效。植物已经改变了它们的解剖结构、形态生理学和分子网络，以在不断变化的环境条件下生存。重金属螯合是一些植物为应对重金属毒性浓度而进化的基本过程之一。一些植物甚至有能力在不产生毒性的情况下，在 shoots/organelles 中大量积累金属。为了进行细胞间和细胞器间的金属运输，植物拥有空间分布的各种转运蛋白，主要帮助金属的吸收、转运和再分配。本综述讨论了不同细胞器中的不同重金属转运蛋白及其在金属螯合和再分配中的作用，以帮助植物应对重金属胁迫。深入了解所涉及的过程有助于在不影响生产力的情况下，培育出更具耐受性的作物。
