In Vitro Breeding of Brassica for Metal Phytoextraction

Research on the use of several plant species for metal phytoextraction had been initiated in the past. Metal phytoextraction is the uptake of heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead, from contaminated soils to the aboveground parts of plants. The contaminants are then removed from the site by harvesting the plants.

Indian mustard, Brassica juncea, is among the plant species recognized to have potential for phytoextraction. Researchers in Switzerland recently have shown that in vitro breeding and somaclonal variation can be used to improve the potential of the plant species to extract and accumulate toxic metals. The researchers generated somaclonal variants of the Indian mustard from metal-tolerant callus cells.

The new phenotypes were found to have improved tolerance to cadmium, zinc and lead under hydrophonic conditions. These plants were able to extract cadmium and lead by up to six and four times higher than the control plants, respectively. The researchers concluded that the clones could be used to further assess metal accumulation and extraction properties in contaminated soils under real field conditions for phytoremediation purpose.

The abstract in Plant Cell Reports, with links to the full paper for journal subscribers, is at http://www.springerlink.com/content/p0p370n036253r80/.