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Morphophysiological characteristic analysis demonstrated the potential of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) in the phytoremediation of cadmium-contaminated soils

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Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) contamination is a worldwide environmental problem, and remediation of Cd pollution is of great significance for food production as well as human health. Here, the responses of sweet sorghum cv. ‘M-81E’ to cadmium stress were studied for its potential as an energy plant in restoring soils contaminated by cadmium. In hydroponic experiments, the biomass of ‘M-81E’ showed no obvious change under 10 μM cadmium treatment. Cadmium concentration was the highest in roots of seedlings as well as mature plants, but in agricultural practice, the valuable and harvested parts of sweet sorghum are shoots, so promoting the translocation of cadmium to shoots is of great importance in order to improve its phytoremediation capacity. Further histochemical assays with dithizone staining revealed that cadmium was mainly concentrated in the stele of roots and scattered in intercellular space of caulicles. Moreover, the correlation analysis showed that Cd had a negative relationship with iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) in caulicles and leaves and a positive relationship with Fe in roots. These results implied that cadmium might compete with Fe, Zn, and Mn for the transport binding sites and further prevent their translocation to shoots. In addition, transmission electron microscopic observations showed that under 100 μM cadmium treatment, the structure of chloroplast was impaired and the cell wall of vascular bundle cells in leaves and xylem and phloem cells in roots turned thicker compared to control. In summary, morphophysiological characteristic analysis demonstrated sweet sorghum can absorb cadmium and the growth is not negatively affected by mild level cadmium stress; thus, it is a promising material for the phytoremediation of cadmium-contaminated soils considering its economic benefit. This study also points out potential strategies to improve the phytoremediation capacity of sweet sorghum through genetic modification of transporters and cell wall components.

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Acknowledgments

The project was financially supported by International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Program (Grant No. 2013DFA60470) of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. We thank Prof. Ruiheng Du (Institute of Millet Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences) for providing seeds of cv. ‘M-81E’. We also thank Fengqing Dong (Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, IBCAS) for technical assistance on transmission electron microscopic observations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Weitao Jia, Sulian Lv, Juanjuan Feng & Yinxin Li

  2. Beijing Engineering Research Center for Biofuels, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jihong Li & Shizhong Li

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  1. Weitao Jia
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  2. Sulian Lv
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Correspondence to Yinxin Li or Shizhong Li.

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Responsible editor: Elena Maestri

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Fig. S1

The sketch of sweet sorghum for sampling parts. The bottom stems were two internodes of the bottom (such as one and two internodes), mediate (such as four and five internodes), and up (such as seven and eight internodes) stems. Due to one stem is corresponding to one leaf for sorghum, the leaves could be harvested as the stems. (JPG 20 kb)

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Jia, W., Lv, S., Feng, J. et al. Morphophysiological characteristic analysis demonstrated the potential of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) in the phytoremediation of cadmium-contaminated soils. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 18823–18831 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7083-5

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