High Accumulation and Subcellular Distribution of Thallium in Green Cabbage (Brassica OleraceaL.Var. CapitataL.)

Abstract

The accumulation of thallium (Tl) in brassicaceous crops is widely known, but both the uptake extents of Tl by the individual cultivars of green cabbage and the distribution of Tl in the tissues of green cabbage are not well understood. Five commonly available cultivars of green cabbage grown in the Tl-spiked pot-culture trials were studied for the uptake extent and subcellular distribution of Tl. The results showed that all the trial cultivars mainly concentrated Tl in the leaves (101∼192 mg/kg, DW) rather than in the roots or stems, with no significant differences among cultivars (p = 0.455). Tl accumulation in the leaves revealed obvious subcellular fractionation: cell cytosol and vacuole >> cell wall > cell organelles. The majority (∼ 88%) of leaf-Tl was found to be in the fraction of cytosol and vacuole, which also served as the major storage site for other major elements such as Ca and Mg. This specific subcellular fractionation of Tl appeared to enable green cabbage to avoid Tl damage to its vital organelles and to help green cabbage tolerate and detoxify Tl. This study demonstrated that all the five green cabbage cultivars show a good application potential in the phytoremediation of Tl-contaminated soils.

Presence of thallium in the environment: sources of contaminations, distribution and monitoring methods

“…In case of exposure to air-borne contamination (fly ash), thallium may also enter the human body via lungs. Recent reports indicate that high thallium concentrations may be found in green vegetables, such as cabbage (Ning et al 2015) or kale (Wallace 2015). A significant increase in thallium content was also observed in case of opioid abusers with mean level of 21 μg L −1 , compared to 1 μg L −1 in the control group (Ghaderi et al 2015).…”

Thallium extraction in urine and water samples by nanomagnetic 4-Aminothieno[2,3-d] pyrimidine-2-thiol functionalized on graphene oxide

“…Contamination with thallium is effected on the environmental and human health. Thallium has toxic effect even at sub ppb concentration and accumulate in plant, vegetables, fruit, microorganisms, animals and human tissues due to water soluble [4,5]. The occupational exposure of thallium is 0.1 mg m -2 for skin and more than 15 mg m -2 is dangerous for human.…”

Insights into Heavy Metals Leakage in Chelator-Induced Phytoextraction of Pb- and Tl-Contaminated Soil

“…Studies only focused on theoretical inference, leaching experimental research under non-planting conditions and non-acid rain conditions [30,31,32,33]. For example, Ning et al [34] suggested that all the heavy metals in the soil were activated by chelating agents, but only some of them were absorbed by plants. So, it is theoretically inferred that there is a risk of multiple HMs leaching.…”