[Molecular mechanisms of plant resistance to cadmium toxicity]

Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential trace element for plants, and has strong toxicity at low concentrations. It can suppress the elongation growth of plant cell, inhibit oxidative mitochondrial phosphorylation, induce oxidative stress, inhibit the activities of several antioxidative enzymes, affect photosynthesis by inhibiting ferrous reductase or damaging photosynthesis apparatus, and cause the alteration of chromatin and the change of plasma membrane ATPase activity. In response to Cd stress, the cells of cadmium-resistant plant species can produce a number of proteins such as phytochelatins, metallothioneins and stress proteins to detoxify Cd ions, and efficiently repair Cd damage. The plant cells can also resort to other defense systems to detoxify Cd ions, e.g., the immobilization of Cd by cell wall, exclusion of Cd through the action of plasma membrane, compartmentalization of Cd by vacuolar, and release of plant glands. The phytochelatin synthase (PCS) genes of Arabidopsin, wheat and Schizosaccharomyces pombe had been identified by using different approaches, and the metallothioneins (MT) in plants was also identified recently. By introducing animal MT genes, transgenic plants could increase the resistant ability to Cd toxicity. Subjected to Cd, plant cells often start to synthesize stress proteins such as heat shock proteins, and the plants having been transformed the stress protein genes could enhance their resistant capacity to Cd ions. It was reported that zinc (Zn) ion-transporting proteins could also transport Cd ion. Some minor genes not conferring tolerance on their own could modify the major gene (s), and enhance Cd tolerance. Cd detoxification in wild type plants could be a complex phenomenon, probably under polygenic control to Cd, while acute Cd stress seemed to be a simpler mechanism, apparently involving only one or a few specific major genes.