Phytoremediation: green technology for the clean up of toxic metals in the environment

By P. L. Gratão, M. Prasad, Patrícia Felippe Cardoso, P. Lea, R. Azevedo. 2005

246 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The contamination of the environment by toxic metals poses a threat for "Man and biosphere", reducing agricultural productivity and damaging the health of the ecosystem. In developed nations, this problem is being addressed and solved to some extent by using "green technology" involving metal tolerant plants, to clean up the polluted soils. The use of naturally occurring metal tolerant plants and the application of genetic manipulation, should hasten the process of transferring this technology from laboratory to field. Therefore, it is essential to investigate and understand how plants are able to tolerate toxic metals and to identify which metabolic pathways and genes are involved in such a process. Recent advances in knowledge derived from the "omics", have considerable potential in developing this green technology. However, strategies to produce genetically altered plants to remove, destroy or sequester toxic metals from the environment and the long-term implications, must be investigated carefully.

Subfields: Plant Science, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4d3d2d106c6dbd9c43dd2cfb01dd9414cd971d5c

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Citations in the corpus

Bioaccumulation of Cr, Hg, As, Pb, Cu and Ni with the ability for hyperaccumulation by Amaranthus dubius (2012, background): “These metal contaminants are environmental pollutants from industrial and agricultural activities, sewage sludge leaching and mining waste, and are usually removed by physicochemical methods (Gratao et al., 2005).”
The potential contribution of plant growth-promoting bacteria to reduce environmental degradation – A comprehensive evaluation (2012, background): “ily with some plants in an additional 10 families (Gratão et al., 2005; Nanda Kumar et al., 1995; Prasad and Freitas, 2003).”
Making the life of heavy metal-stressed plants a little easier. (2005, background): “Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential element, which is considered the most toxic heavy metal, causing a very significant damaging effect on general plant metabolism (Benavides et al. 2005; Gratão et al. 2005) and inducing oxidative stress (Schützendübel et al.”
Metal hyperaccumulation and bioremediation (2007, background): “…(Phyllanthus), Leucocroton and Asteraceae (Senecio, Pentacalia); Zn: Brassicaceae (Thlaspi); Cu and Co: Lamiaceae, Scrophulariaceae (Baker and Brooks 1989, Chaney et al. 1997, Brooks 1998, Clemens 2001, Broadhurst et al. 2004, Gratao et al. 2005, Prasad 2005, Vinterhalter and Vinterhalter 2005).”