Does low uranium concentration generates phytotoxic symptoms in Pisum sativum L. in nutrient medium?

Abstract

Due to excessive mining and use of radionuclide especially uranium (U) and its fission products, numerous health hazards as well as environmental contamination worldwide have been created. The present study focused on demonstrating whether low concentration of U treatment in liquid nutient medium may translocate traces of U in plants and in fruits of Pisum sativum after 30 and 60 days of exposure for the safe use as a food supplement for human/animals. Hydroponically grown plants (in amended Hoagland medium) were treated with two different concentrations of uranium ([U] = 100 and 500 nM, respectively). Plants showed a decrease in total chlorophyll after 60 days of treatment. On the other hand, Eh of the nutrient medium was not affected from the initial days till 60 days of treatment, but pH of nutrient medium was increased upon durations, highest at 60 days of treatment. In seeds, micro/macro elements were under limit as well as U concentration was also under detection limit. We did not observe any U in the above ground parts (shoots/seeds) of the plant, i.e., under detection limit. Our observation suggests that P. sativum plants may be useful to grow at low radionuclide [U]-contaminated areas for safe human/animal use, but for other fission products, we have to investigate further for the safe human/animal use.

Calcium-permeable cation channels are involved in uranium uptake in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…The link between U and the homeostasis of Ca has been previously reported in several plant species (Vanhoudt et al, 2011b;Tawussi et al, 2017;El Hayek et al, 2018;El Hayek et al, 2019;Rajabi et al, 2021) but no evidence was provided to support the uptake of the radionuclide by the Ca assimilation machinery. In this work, we provide several lines of evidence that U is taken up by the roots of Arabidopsis plants through Ca 2+ -permeable cation channels.…”

High-affinity iron and calcium transport pathways are involved in U(VI) uptake in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…In plants, it was also found that U accumulation in plants was directly related to mobile calcium content in soil (Ratnikov et al, 2020). The interference of U with calcium uptake and homeostasis has been also reported in numerous studies (El Hayek et al, 2018;Moll et al, 2020;Rajabi et al, 2021;Straczek et al, 2009;Tawussi et al, 2017;Vanhoudt et al, 2010). The observed increase in cytoplasmic calcium reported in some cases could represent a cellular defense mechanism in response to the presence of U (White and Broadley, 2003).…”