Abstract
Plant cells maintain plasmatic concentrations of essential heavy metal ions, such as iron, zinc, and copper, within the optimal functional range. To do so, several molecular mechanisms have to be committed to maintain concentrations of non-essential heavy metals and metalloids, such as cadmium, mercury and arsenic below their toxicity threshold levels. Compartmentalization is central to heavy metals homeostasis and secretory compartments, finely interconnected by traffic mechanisms, are determinant. Endomembrane reorganization can have unexpected effects on heavy metals tolerance altering in a complex way membrane permeability, storage, and detoxification ability beyond gene’s expression regulation. The full understanding of endomembrane role is propaedeutic to the comprehension of translocation and hyper-accumulation mechanisms and their applicative employment. It is evident that further studies on dynamic localization of these and many more proteins may significantly contribute to the understanding of heavy metals tolerance mechanisms. The aim of this review is to provide an overview about the endomembrane alterations involved in heavy metals compartmentalization and tolerance in plants.
Highlights
Heavy Metals (Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, Fe, Cr, Cu, etc.) and Metalloids (As, Se, Sb) are naturally present in the Earth’s crust, some of them are essential for life such as Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, Mn, Mo, and Ni and are required as micronutrients that act as cofactors in biochemical reactions or play other physiological role into the cell and become toxic when in excess
The use of model systems has led to a significant progress on the identification and characterization of candidate genes involved in Heavy Metals (HMs) movement and destination inside the plant cell, and on their role in physiological processes
The specific mechanisms induced by HMs causing endomembrane remodeling are largely uncharacterized
Summary
Heavy Metals (Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, Fe, Cr, Cu, etc.) and Metalloids (As, Se, Sb) are naturally present in the Earth’s crust, some of them are essential for life such as Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, Mn, Mo, and Ni and are required as micronutrients that act as cofactors in biochemical reactions or play other physiological role into the cell and become toxic when in excess. The use of model systems has led to a significant progress on the identification and characterization of candidate genes involved in HM movement and destination inside the plant cell, and on their role in physiological processes These achievements and the future work investigating the molecular mechanisms underneath plant resistance to HMs will allow to produce healthy food and Plants 2020, 9, 482; doi:10.3390/plants9040482 www.mdpi.com/journal/plants. A variety of molecular approaches brought to the identification of candidate determinants controlling the hyperaccumulation trait This process requires, increased metal uptake and xylem loading as well as enhanced metal accumulation and detoxification in shoots. We aim here to give an overview of the morphological alteration showed by endomembrane compartments upon stress due to excess metal ions
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