Effect of Pb, Cd, Hg, As, and Cr on germination and root growth of Sinapis alba seeds.

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Heavy metals have been widely recognized as highly toxic and dangerous. Plants, algae and bacteria respond to heavy metal toxicity by inducing different enzymes, creating ion influx/efflux for ionic balance and synthesizing small peptides. These peptides bind metal ions and reduce toxicity. Metals come from the natural weathering processes of the earth's crust, industrial discharge, pest or disease control agents applied to plants, urban run-off, mining, soil erosion, sewage effluents, air pollution fallout and other sources. Plants can be affected directly by air pollutants, as well as indirectly through the contamination of soil and water. At the same time, plant is a member of the food chain and may create a risk for man and animals through contamination of food supplies. In recent years a considerable progress has been made in the assay of trace elements in environmental plant samples. For higher plants, the accumulation of metals, especially cadmium, was tested when plants grew on sewage sludge-amended soils or in soils of cadmium residues from phosphate fertilizers. No reports were accessible to us on the direct effect of tested metals (Pb, Hg, Cr, As, Cd) on seed germination and root growth. The paucity of literature initiated our present work. Inmore » this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the acute toxicity of five metals (Cr[sup 6+], Cd[sup 2+], Hg[sup 2+], Pb[sup 2+], As[sup 5+]) which are widely spread in the environment and are widely recognized as highly toxic and dangerous. As the testing subject, mustard seeds (Sinapis alba) were used and their germination and root growth were observed. 12 refs., 1 tab.« less