Extracellular Trapping of Soil Contaminants by Root Border Cells: New Insights into Plant Defense

Agronomy

Martha C. Hawes¹  Jean McLain¹  Monica Ramirez-Andreotta¹  Gilberto Curlango-Rivera¹  Yolanda Flores-Lara⁴  Lindy A. Brigham²  Leslie A. Weston³ 

[1] Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA;Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Coordination Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA;;Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USAUniversidad de Sonora, Unidad Regional Norte Caborca, Mexico;

关键词: root border cells;    extracellular DNA;    neutrophil extracellular traps;    rhizofiltration;    heavy metals;   

DOI  :  10.3390/agronomy6010005

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Soil and water pollution by metals and other toxic chemicals is difficult to measure and control, and, as such, presents an ongoing global threat to sustainable agriculture and human health. Efforts to remove contaminants by plant-mediated pathways, or “phytoremediation”, though widely studied, have failed to yield consistent, predictable removal of biological and chemical contaminants. Emerging research has revealed that one major limitation to using plants to clean up the environment is that plants are programmed to protect themselves: Like white blood cells in animals, border cells released from plant root tips carry out an extracellular trapping process to neutralize threats and prevent injury to the host. Variability in border cell trapping has been found to be correlated with variation in sensitivity of roots to aluminum, and removal of border cell results in increased Al uptake into the root tip. Studies now have implicated border cells in responses of diverse plant roots to a range of heavy metals, including arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, mercury, iron, and zinc. A better understanding of border cell extracellular traps and their role in preventing toxin uptake may facilitate efforts to use plants as a nondestructive approach to neutralize environmental threats.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.