Recent strategies of increasing metal tolerance and phytoremediation potential using genetic transformation of plants

Abstract

Avoidance and reduction of soil contamination with heavy metals is one of the most serious global challenges. Nowadays, science offers us new opportunities of utilizing plants to extract toxic elements from the soil by means of phytoremediation. Plant abilities to uptake, translocate, and transform heavy metals, as well as to limit their toxicity, may be significantly enhanced via genetic engineering. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent strategies aimed at the improvement of plant phytoremediation potential using plant transformation and employing current achievements in nuclear and cytoplasmic genome transformation. Strategies for obtaining plants suitable for effective soil clean-up and tolerant to excessive concentrations of heavy metals are critically assessed. Promising directions in genetic manipulations, such as gene silencing and cis- and intragenesis, are also discussed. Moreover, the ways of overcoming disadvantages of phytoremediation using genetic transformation approachare proposed. The knowledge gathered here could be useful for designing new research aimed at biotechnological improvement of phytoremediation efficiency.

Phytoremediation: A Promising Approach for Revegetation of Heavy Metal-Polluted Land

“…Heavy metals may cause excessive production of ROS and result in oxidative stress, so heavy metal tolerance is usually manifested by the strength of oxidative stress defense system. Therefore, the most common strategy to increase heavy metal tolerance is to enhance antioxidant activity (Koźmińska et al, 2018), which can be achieved by overexpression of genes involved in antioxidant machinery. To increase heavy metal accumulation through genetic engineering, the common strategy is to introduce and overexpress genes that are involved in the uptake, translocation, and sequestration of heavy metals (Mani and Kumar, 2014;Das et al, 2016).…”

Application of Floating Aquatic Plants in Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals Polluted Water: A Review

“…The application of transgenic plants in phytoremediation is a novel approach to enhance the effectiveness of phytoremediation. Specific genes in transgenic plants increase the metabolism, accumulation and uptake of definite pollutants [94,100]. The ideal plant to engineer for phytoremediation should possess characteristics; high biomass yield adopted to local and target environment and well-established transformation protocol.…”

“…The ideal plant to engineer for phytoremediation should possess characteristics; high biomass yield adopted to local and target environment and well-established transformation protocol. Transgenic plants also enhance the detoxification process of organic pollutants and the addition of toxic compounds in the food chain [100,101]. Firstly, transgenic plants were introduced for the remediation of inorganic pollutants; now they are effectively used to remove organic pollutants from contaminated media [102].…”

“…The growth and cultivation of aquatic plants are time-consuming, which may restrict the growing demand of phytoremediation [126]. Nevertheless, this shortcoming is substituted by the number of advantages that this technology possesses for the treatment of wastewater [100,127].…”

Analysis of Genetic Profiles of Heavy Metal Phytememediator Plants From Gold Mining Areas

“…Kelompok protein yang memiliki kemampuan untuk mengikat logam di antaranya adalah PCs (phytochelatin) dan metallothionein. PCs merupakan peptida yang disintesis secara enzimatik dari glutathione, sedangkan metallothionein merupakan produk yang dihasilkan langsung dari ekspresi gen (Koźmińska et al, 2018). Metallothionein pada tumbuhan, secara umum, berperan dalam homeostasis logam-logam esensial (Se, Zn, Ni, dan Cu) dan dalam detoksifikasi logam xenobiotic, seperti Cd, Hg, dan Ag (Tripathi et al, 2015 Hasil analisis profil genetik menggunakan primer spesifik untuk gen metallothionein (mt-gene) menunjukkan bahwa tidak adanya pita DNA spesifik pada semua sampel baik dari lokasi bekas tambang emas maupun lokasi non-tambang.…”