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Phenotyping 60 populations of Noccaea caerulescens provides a broader knowledge of variation in traits of interest for phytoextraction

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Abstract

Background and aims

Noccaea caerulescens is a model plant for understanding metal hyperaccumulation as well as being a potential source of cultivars for phytoextraction. Sixty populations from non-metallicolous (NM), calamine (CAL) and serpentine (SER) edaphic groups were phenotyped in order to more extensively characterise the species and to detect candidates for cultivar selection.

Methods

15 plants per population were grown until fruit maturity in a greenhouse on a homogeneous soil spiked with Cd, Ni and Zn. Development, growth and ionome variables were measured.

Results

NM and SER edaphic groups seem to be similar, with plants producing fewer inflorescences and shoot biomass, flowering later, reaching maturity sooner and accumulating more transition metals than CAL plants. Three geographically structured CAL subgroups could be distinguished according to their shoot Cd/Zn ratio. Only CAL populations from the south east of the Massif Central were observed to hyperaccumulate Cd. At the species level, the Ni and Zn contents were strongly correlated. Nickel accumulation was also closely associated to that of Mg and Ca. The NM and SER edaphic groups both hyperaccumulated Ni and Zn. Biomass production was not correlated to metal contents, suggesting no trade-off between these traits.

Conclusions

The high natural variability of N. caerulescens’ traits and its accumulation potential could be exploited for the production of phytoextraction cultivars.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Région Lorraine and the FEDER (European Union) for funding this research carried out within the framework of the LORVER project set up by Jean-Louis Morel and coordinated by Sophie Guimont and Marie-Odile Simonnot. They are grateful to Stéphane Colin, Jean-Claude Bégin, Christophe Bailly and Adeline Motz for their technical help and to Philippe Antonetti (National Botanical Conservatory from the Massif Central), Olivier Bardet (National Botanical Conservatory from the Bassin Parisien), Yoric Ferrez (National Botanical Conservatory from Franche Comté), Thierry Mahevas and Guy Seznec (Nancy Conservatory and Botanical Gardens) for their help in locating the N. caerulescens populations. The authors also thank Mark Aarts, Guillaume Besnard, José Escarré, Hélène Frérot, Markus Koch, Nausicaa Noret, Maxime Pauwels for providing N. caerulescens seeds. They are grateful to Maxime Pauwels for his advice on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, Université de Lorraine, UMR 1120, TSA 40602, F-54518, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France

    Thibault Sterckeman, Yannick Cazes, Cédric Gonneau & Catherine Sirguey

  2. Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, Inra, UMR 1120, TSA 40602, F-54518, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France

    Thibault Sterckeman, Yannick Cazes, Cédric Gonneau & Catherine Sirguey

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  1. Thibault Sterckeman
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  2. Yannick Cazes
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  3. Cédric Gonneau
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  4. Catherine Sirguey
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Correspondence to Thibault Sterckeman.

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Sterckeman, T., Cazes, Y., Gonneau, C. et al. Phenotyping 60 populations of Noccaea caerulescens provides a broader knowledge of variation in traits of interest for phytoextraction. Plant Soil 418, 523–540 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3311-0

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