Concepts for Improving Phytoremediation by Plant Engineering

Abstract

Engineering plants with better metal tolerance and accumulation potential is imperative to emergent phytoremediators. Certain plants can hyperaccumulate metal ions that are lethal to nearly all organisms even at low dosages. This characteristic could be utilized for cleaning metal-polluted soils. Furthermore, the accretion of heavy metals by plants establishes both the micronutrient and the heavy metal concentration of our food chain. Intricate communications of transport and chelating processes manage the efficiency of metal uptake and storage. In current scenario, numerous fundamental steps have been recognized at the molecular level and facilitate us to commence transgenic advances to engineer the transition metal composition of plants. The utilization of genetic engineering to amend plants for metal uptake, transport, and sequestration may launch novel possibility for improving competence of phytoremediation. Preamble of genes governing chelation complexes and metal transporter can enhance metal uptake and sequestration. This results in transgenic plants with amplified detoxification and accumulation of heavy metals like cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, and selenium. An in-depth understanding pertaining to mechanisms of rhizosphere interaction, uptake, transport, and sequestration of metals in hyperaccumulator plants will guide us to designing new transgenic plants with enhanced remediation characteristics. As we will discover more genes associated with metal metabolism, assisted through the genome sequencing ventures, novel panorama will be announced for advancement of competent transgenic plant lines for phytoremediation.