麻豆淫院

Scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, together with researchers from St. Petersburg State University and K.A.Timiryazev Institute of Plant 麻豆淫院iology RAS, have defined key changes in the metabolism of amaranth plants that help them to resist the toxic influence of zinc.

It turns out that amaranth actively accumulates sugars and organic acids that neutralize the harmful effects of heavy metals. The obtained data will be useful for the selection of crops that are sustainable for contaminated soils. Results of the research are in the journal Plants.

The work of industrial companies, the combustion of automobile fuel, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture lead to contamination of soil by heavy metals, particularly by zinc. Although plants need this element in small amounts, its surplus leads to destruction of photosynthesis, metabolism, cell damage and a decrease in productivity. Plants have various protective mechanisms that help to prevent cell damage by heavy metals, but they still aren't sufficiently studied.

The researchers studied mechanisms that gave amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L.) sustainability to zinc. This plant adapts perfectly to an unfavorable environment in general and to very poor and contaminated soils in particular.

In their work, the authors used young plants of amaranth that were grown in hydroponic culture鈥攚ithout soil, in solution with nutrients. Scientists added in a nutrient solution that was used for some plants for one week, a concentration of zinc that鈥攁ccording to measures of physiological parameters of leaves鈥攃aused plants moderate stress, but had little effect on health. Plants that were not affected by zinc were included in the control group.

After a week of experiments, scientists took samples of roots and leaves of plants and analyzed their chemical composition. It turned out that after treatment with zinc, amaranth increased the production of 83 compounds, among which most were sugars (in particular, sucrose and galactose) and organic acids (gluconic and salicylic). These substances bind ions of zinc and protect plants from oxidative stress.

The team observed especially strong changes in roots; here the amount of gluconic acid increased 59 times, and salicylic acid increased 27 times compared with the control group. Moreover, this analysis showed that as a response to the effect of metal amaranth's roots more actively synthesized galactose, it could further participate in the path of pectin formation. These polymers serve as structural components of cell walls and are able to bind ions of zinc effectively, thus decreasing their availability for plant cells.

Such results mean that these substances can prevent metal transfer to terrestrial parts of the plant.

"Our research shows that amaranth adapts to a surplus of zinc thanks to metabolic reconstructing. At the same time, a plant not only accumulates metal in the roots and prevents it from entering the terrestrial parts of the plant, but actively neutralizes its harmful effects with the help of sugars and organic acids. This information will be useful for creating sorts of agricultural crops, sustainable to environmental pollution.

"In the future, we are planning to study changes that occur at the proteome level (a set of proteins in the cell) of amaranth plants, treated with zinc. This research will bring us closer to the understanding of molecular mechanisms that lie in the base of stress reactions that are caused by the toxicity of zinc ions, and will be crucial for the elaboration of new approaches to the mitigation of the harmful effects of this metal on plants' physiology and creation of effective instruments of phytomediation," says Stanislav Suhih, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of microclonal reproduction of plants of Immanuel Kant Baltic federal University.