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Cadmium accumulation in different pakchoi cultivars and screening for pollution-safe cultivars

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Abstract

The selection and breeding of pollution-safe cultivars (PSCs) is a practicable and cost-effective approach to minimize the influx of heavy metal to the human food chain. In this study, both pot-culture and field experiments were conducted to identify and screen out cadmium pollution-safe cultivars (Cd-PSCs) from 50 pakchoi (Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis) cultivars for food safety. When treated with 1.0 or 2.5 mg/kg Cd, most of the pakchoi cultivars (>70%) showed greater or similar shoot biomass when compared with the control. This result indicates that pakchoi has a considerable tolerance to soil Cd stress. Cd concentrations in the shoot varied significantly (P<0.05) between cultivars: in two Cd treatments (1.0 and 2.5 mg/kg), the average values were 0.074 and 0.175 mg/kg fresh weight (FW), respectively. Cd concentrations in the shoots of 14 pakchoi cultivars were lower than 0.05 mg/kg FW. In pot-culture experiments, both enrichment factors (EFs) and translocation factors (TFs) of six pakchoi cultivars were lower than 1.0. The field studies further confirmed that the Hangzhouyoudonger, Aijiaoheiye 333, and Zaoshenghuajing cultivars are Cd-PSCs, and are therefore suitable for growth in low Cd-contaminated soils (≤1.2 mg/kg) without any risk to food safety.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecological Health, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Ying Chen, Ting-qiang Li, Xuan Han, Zhe-li Ding & Xiao-e Yang

  2. College of Life Sciences, Shaoxing College of Arts and Sciences, Shaoxing, 312000, China

    Ying Chen & Ye-fei Jin

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  1. Ying Chen
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  2. Ting-qiang Li
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  3. Xuan Han
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  4. Zhe-li Ding
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  5. Xiao-e Yang
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  6. Ye-fei Jin
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Correspondence to Ting-qiang Li.

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Project supported by the National High-Tech R & D Program (863) of China (No. 2009AA06Z316), the Science and Technology Commission of Zhejiang Province (No. 2008C33047), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China

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Chen, Y., Li, Tq., Han, X. et al. Cadmium accumulation in different pakchoi cultivars and screening for pollution-safe cultivars. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 13, 494–502 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1100356

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1100356

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