Tungsten Toxicity in Plants

Plants

Ioannis-Dimosthenis S. Adamakis¹  Emmanuel Panteris¹ 

[1] Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece;

关键词: actin microfilaments;    endoplasmic reticulum stress;    unfolded protein response;    microtubules;    mitosis;    molybdenum cofactor;    programmed cell death;    tungsten toxicity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/plants1020082

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Tungsten (W) is a rare heavy metal, widely used in a range of industrial, military and household applications due to its unique physical properties. These activities inevitably have accounted for local W accumulation at high concentrations, raising concerns about its effects for living organisms. In plants, W has primarily been used as an inhibitor of the molybdoenzymes, since it antagonizes molybdenum (Mo) for the Mo-cofactor (MoCo) of these enzymes. However, recent advances indicate that, beyond Mo-enzyme inhibition, W has toxic attributes similar with those of other heavy metals. These include hindering of seedling growth, reduction of root and shoot biomass, ultrastructural malformations of cell components, aberration of cell cycle, disruption of the cytoskeleton and deregulation of gene expression related with programmed cell death (PCD). In this article, the recent available information on W toxicity in plants and plant cells is reviewed, and the knowledge gaps and the most pertinent research directions are outlined.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.