Plants in Heavy Metal Soils

Abstract

Few plant species, however, of different taxonomic affiliations, can grow on heavy metal soils. The adaptations of these metallophytes to the adverse conditions of heavy metal soils differ from one plant species to the next. Toxicity of heavy metals to plant cell constituents and responses of plant cells to cope with excess of heavy metals is described in this chapter. Current research on heavy metal tolerance and hyperaccumulation of plants focuses on the two model species Cardaminopsis (Arabidopsis) halleri and Thlaspi caerulescens. On the molecular level, heavy metal tolerance of plants might have arisen by gene duplications and modified regulations of their expressions rather than the development of new genes generated by extensive sequence alterations.