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Do roots or shoots control cadmium accumulation in the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens?

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Abstract

Aims

To rank the contributions of roots and shoots to Cd uptake by the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens, two hypotheses were tested: Shoots control the uptake through detoxification reactions; alternatively, roots do this through absorption and translocation.

Methods

In a first experiment, plants with the same final age were exposed for 1, 2 or 3 weeks to 0.5 μM Cd in hydroponics. In another experiment, either roots or shoots or both were pruned before the plants were exposed for 1 week to Cd at 0.5 μM in the nutrient solution.

Results

The first experiment showed that the Cd accumulation was driven by the root absorption combined with xylem loading, keeping the root Cd concentration constant. After root or/and shoot pruning, all the plants accumulated the same total quantity of Cd. After root pruning, the remaining roots increased their Cd absorption influx. Shoot pruning alone did not affect absorption or storage in roots and the pruned shoots accumulated as much Cd as the unpruned ones. Similar results were obtained for all major and minor nutrients.

Conclusions

Root absorption and xylem loading are the major processes controlling Cd hyperaccumulation in N. caerulescens, the shoot being a compartment in which the metal exported by the roots is stored.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the ANR 2011 CESA 008 01 funding. We are grateful to Romain Goudon for his help in analysing the samples and to Dr Christophe Robin for ameliorating the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, UMR 1120, TSA 40602, 54818 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France

    Thibault Sterckeman, Monique Goderniaux & Catherine Sirguey

  2. Inra, Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, UMR 1120, TSA 40602, 54818 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France

    Thibault Sterckeman, Monique Goderniaux & Catherine Sirguey

  3. INRA, UMR 1391 ISPA, 33140, Villenave d’Ornon, France

    Jean-Yves Cornu & Christophe Nguyen

  4. Bordeaux Sciences Agro, UMR 1391 ISPA, 33170, Gradignan, France

    Jean-Yves Cornu & Christophe Nguyen

Authors
  1. Thibault Sterckeman
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  2. Monique Goderniaux
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  3. Catherine Sirguey
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  4. Jean-Yves Cornu
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  5. Christophe Nguyen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thibault Sterckeman.

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Responsible Editor: Henk Schat.

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Sterckeman, T., Goderniaux, M., Sirguey, C. et al. Do roots or shoots control cadmium accumulation in the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens?. Plant Soil 392, 87–99 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2449-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2449-x

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