Cellular and Ultrastructure Alteration of Plant Roots in Response to Metal Stress

Abstract

Metal stress is among the important environmental stresses, which influences the growth and development of plants and crops in many areas in the biosphere. Root is an important gate for the absorption of water and mineral nutrition which in many types of lands is also accompanied by a higher concentration of metal elements, either essential (such as Fe, Mn, and Cu) or non-essential metal elements or heavy metals (such as Al, Pb, Hg, Cd, and Ag). In response to metal stress, plant roots sometimes develop a cellular structure to prevent excessive concentration of metal components to avoid toxic effects and cellular damage. Physiological and biochemical responses at the cellular level, which result in ultrastructure changes may occur due to or to avoid the negative effect of metal toxicity. In many cases it was followed by the reduction of root growth followed by discontinuing entirely plant growth. On the other hand, the structural changes are an important part of root mechanism to sustain the plant from metal toxicity. In this chapter, different changes in the cellular ultrastructure resulting from toxic damage or indicating tolerance response to metal stress will be elucidated.

Optimization of Phytoremediation of Nickel by Alocasia puber Using Response Surface Methodology

“…Growth is the most recognizable morphological parameter of plants undergoing metal stress, where the root growth is commonly the most affected. Furthermore, slow growth will result in low crop production if it occurs in cultivated plants [65]. Figure 7 illustrates the ultrastructural observations on the root cells of the control and Ni-loaded samples of A. puber.…”

“…There are several mechanisms that allow plants to keep growing well in environments with high metal content, including (a) plants having the ability to keep metal ions from entering into their cells, (b) plants having the ability to absorb metals in high concentrations and allocating them to certain tissues/organs, and (c) plants having mechanisms that allow metals to be detoxified so that they do not disrupt the plants' growth [65].…”

Analisis Morfofisiologi, Anatomi, dan Histokimia pada Lima Spesies Tanaman Gulma sebagai Respons terhadap Merkuri dan Timbal

“…Penghambatan pertumbuhan merupakan respons umum tanaman terhadap cekaman logam berat (Hamim et al 2018). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pertumbuhan tanaman dipengaruhi oleh logam berat merkuri dan timbal (Tabel 1 dan 2).…”

“…Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa akumulasi logam Hg dan Pb pada akar lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan pada tajuk. Besarnya akumulasi logam berat pada akar merupakan strategi umum tumbuhan dalam menghadapi cekaman logam berat untuk menghindarkan efek negatif logam berat apabila diakumulasi pada tajuk (Hamim et al 2018). Hal ini juga banyak dilaporkan pada penelitian sebelumnya, misalnya yang dilakukan oleh Chen et al (2009) pada tanaman paku yang diberi perlakuan merkuri dan Malecka et al (2008) pada tanaman Pisum sativum yang diberi perlakuan timbal.…”

Growth and yield performance of maize at red-yellow podzolic acid soil after oil palm empty fruit bunches compost and rice husk charcoal application

“…Acid soils are soils that contain relatively high concentrations of H + (Zhang et al, 2017). At a pH below three, H + is toxic, while pH under five will be Al toxicity (Lin et al, 2018), Fe and Mn cause root inhibitors by destroying the root cell structure and meristem (Hamim et al, 2018).…”