JXB Advance Access originally published online on July 5, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(11):3203-3213; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern174
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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RESEARCH PAPER |
Enhanced root-to-shoot translocation of cadmium in the hyperaccumulating ecotype of Sedum alfredii
1MOE Key Laboratory of Environment Remediation and Ecological Health, College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University, Huajiachi Campus, Hangzhou 310029, PR China
2Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
3University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Science, Indian River Research and Education Center, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: xyang571{at}yahoo.com or xyang{at}zju.edu.cn
Sedum alfredii (Crasulaceae) is the only known Cd-hyperaccumulating species that are not in the Brassica family; the mechanism of Cd hyperaccumulation in this plant is, however, little understood. Here, a combination of radioactive techniques, metabolic inhibitors, and fluorescence imaging was used to contrast Cd uptake and translocation between a hyperaccumulating ecotype (HE) and a non-hyperaccumulating ecotype (NHE) of S. alfredii. The Km of 109Cd influx into roots was similar in both ecotypes, while the Vmax was 2-fold higher in the HE. Significant inhibition of Cd uptake by low temperature or metabolic inhibitors was observed in the HE, whereas the effect was less pronounced in the NHE. 109Cd influx into roots was also significantly decreased by high Ca in both ecotypes. The rate of root-to-shoot translocation of 109Cd in the HE was >10 times higher when compared with the NHE, and shoots of the HE accumulated dramatically higher 109Cd concentrations those of the NHE. The addition of the metabolic inhibitor carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) resulted in a significant reduction in Cd contents in the shoots of the HE, and in the roots of the NHE. Cd was distributed preferentially to the root cylinder of the HE but not the NHE, and there was a 3–5 times higher Cd concentration in xylem sap of the HE in contrast to the NHE. These results illustrate that a greatly enhanced rate of root-to-shoot translocation, possibly as a result of enhanced xylem loading, rather than differences in the rate of root uptake, was the pivotal process expressed in the Cd hyperaccumulator HE S. alfredii.
Key words: Cadmium, hyperaccumulation, Sedum alfredii, translocation, uptake
Received 30 April 2008; Revised 2 June 2008 Accepted 3 June 2008