Surface Electrical Potentials of Root Cell Plasma Membranes: Implications for Ion Interactions, Rhizotoxicity, and Uptake

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Yi-Min Wang³  Thomas B. Kinraide²  Peng Wang¹  Xiu-Zhen Hao³  Dong-Mei Zhou³ 

[1] The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; E-Mail:;Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Collaborating Scientist, Plant Science Research Unit, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; E-Mail:;Key Laboratory of Soil Environment & Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; E-Mails:

关键词: plasma membrane;    surface electrical potential;    heavy metal;    rhizotoxicity;    metal uptake;    risk assessment;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms151222661

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Many crop plants are exposed to heavy metals and other metals that may intoxicate the crop plants themselves or consumers of the plants. The rhizotoxicity of heavy metals is influenced strongly by the root cell plasma membrane (PM) surface’s electrical potential (ψ₀). The usually negative ψ₀ is created by negatively charged constituents of the PM. Cations in the rooting medium are attracted to the PM surface and anions are repelled. Addition of ameliorating cations (e.g., Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺) to the rooting medium reduces the effectiveness of cationic toxicants (e.g., Cu²⁺ and Pb²⁺) and increases the effectiveness of anionic toxicants (e.g., SeO₄²⁻ and H₂AsO₄⁻). Root growth responses to ions are better correlated with ion activities at PM surfaces ({I^Z}₀) than with activities in the bulk-phase medium ({I^Z}_b) (I^Z denotes an ion with charge Z). Therefore, electrostatic effects play a role in heavy metal toxicity that may exceed the role of site-specific competition between toxicants and ameliorants. Furthermore, ψ₀ controls the transport of ions across the PM by influencing both {I^Z}₀ and the electrical potential difference across the PM from the outer surface to the inner surface (E_m,surf). E_m,surf is a component of the driving force for ion fluxes across the PM and controls ion-channel voltage gating. Incorporation of {I^Z}₀ and E_m,surf into quantitative models for root metal toxicity and uptake improves risk assessments of toxic metals in the environment. These risk assessments will improve further with future research on the application of electrostatic theory to heavy metal phytotoxicity in natural soils and aquatic environments.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.