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Responses of Lemna trisulca L. (Duckweed) exposed to low doses of cadmium: thiols, metal binding complexes, and photosynthetic pigments as sensitive biomarkers of ecotoxicity

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Abstract

Lemna species are reported to accumulate a variety of metals from contaminated/polluted sites. Cadmium is a nonessential element for plant metabolism. In this work, we aimed to investigate physiological responses to low doses of cadmium (up to 100 μM). From exposure to the lowest Cd concentration (1 µM) to the highest (100 µM), photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, b, carotenoids) and the ratios of Chl a/b, Chl (a + b)/carotenoids decreased as a function of the Cd dose. The content of soluble proteins decreased in a dose-dependent manner, while total soluble thiols drastically increased. In Cd-treated fronds, the dose-dependent accumulation of a polypeptide with an apparent molecular weight of 24 kDa, as well as the appearance of two smaller polypeptides with molecular weights <6.5 kDa, was observed in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Our results show that in Lemna trisulca, different adaptative mechanisms may be involved in counterbalancing low and high doses of a particular toxicant (cadmium). This feature makes this plant potentially useful material in biomonitoring and phytotoxicity testing.

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Acknowledgments

KS and MNVP gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Government of India, New Delhi, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNISW), Warsaw, Poland, within the framework of the Indo-Polish Programme of Cooperation in Science and Technology ref DST/INT/P-15/05 dt 7-11-2006. Cooperation with BIONAN net is thankfully acknowledged.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30-387, Kraków, Poland

    Przemysław Malec & Kazimierz Strzałka

  2. Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, M. Gorky Ural State University, Lenin av. 51, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia

    Maria G. Maleva

  3. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 046, India

    M. N. V. Prasad

Authors
  1. Przemysław Malec
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  2. Maria G. Maleva
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  3. M. N. V. Prasad
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  4. Kazimierz Strzałka
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Correspondence to Kazimierz Strzałka.

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Malec, P., Maleva, M.G., Prasad, M.N.V. et al. Responses of Lemna trisulca L. (Duckweed) exposed to low doses of cadmium: thiols, metal binding complexes, and photosynthetic pigments as sensitive biomarkers of ecotoxicity. Protoplasma 240, 69–74 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-009-0091-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-009-0091-2

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