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Plant Responses to Environmental Nickel Toxicity

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Plant Micronutrients

Abstract

Nickel (Ni) is a heavy metal (HM) which is both beneficial and toxic to plants depending upon its concentration and period of exposure. It has been reported that optimum doses of Ni actually enhance plant growth by stimulating several physiological processes. Thus, Ni is regarded as a crucial micronutrient or beneficial trace element for the plant system. However, beyond the optimum dosage, the concentration of Ni can also become highly toxic and detrimental for plant growth, since it exerts the negative effects of HM toxicity. Uncontrolled anthropogenic activity and unplanned industrial waste processing have led to severe increase in the concentration of Ni in river waters that are popularly used for irrigation or even in the fields where agricultural crops are grown. As a result, Ni toxicity is a rising ecological problem which requires to be addressed immediately. This chapter briefly discusses the toxicity mediated by Ni in important crop and plant species and also the available reports in the current literature which describe the effective amelioration of Ni toxicity in plants. The aim of the review is to bring forward the severity of this growing environmental problem so that future scientific endeavors can be adopted to tackle it.

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Acknowledgements

Financial assistance from Science and Engineering Research Board, Government of India, through the grant [EMR/2016/004799] and Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology and Biotechnology, Government of West Bengal, through the grant [264(Sanc.)/ST/P/S&T/1G-80/2017] to Dr. Aryadeep Roychoudhury is gratefully acknowledged. Mr. Aditya Banerjee is thankful to University Grants Commission, Government of India, for providing Senior Research Fellowship in the course of this work.

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  1. Post Graduate Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Aditya Banerjee & Aryadeep Roychoudhury

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  1. Aditya Banerjee
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Tariq Aftab

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Rehman Hakeem

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Banerjee, A., Roychoudhury, A. (2020). Plant Responses to Environmental Nickel Toxicity. In: Aftab, T., Hakeem, K.R. (eds) Plant Micronutrients. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49856-6_5

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