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Special Issue "Heavy Metals Accumulation, Toxicity and Detoxification in Plants 2.0"

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Luigi De Bellis
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Università del Salento, Centro Ecotekne, via Provinciale Lecce Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: plant physiology; genomics; biotechnology; pathology; fruit quality
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Alessio Aprile
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Salento University, Lecce, Italy
2. Centro Ecotekne via Provinciale Lecce Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: molecular responses of plants to heavy metals, drought and heat; crop physiology of durum wheat and other cereals
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, heavy metals have been widely used in agricultural, chemical, domestic, and technological applications causing environmental and soil contaminations. Heavy metals enter the plant system through soil or via the atmosphere and can accumulate, affecting physiological processes; plant growth; yield; and human health if heavy metals are stored in edible tissues. Understanding the regulation mechanisms of plant heavy metals accumulation and partitioning is important to improve the safety of the food chain.

This Special Issue aims to explore three main issues:

(1) The accumulation and partitioning of heavy metals in crops and wild plants;

(2) The toxicity and molecular behaviours of cells, tissues, and their effects on physiology and plant growth;

(3) Detoxification strategies, plant tolerance, and phytoremediation.

Prof. Dr. Luigi De Bellis
Dr. Alessio Aprile
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Heavy metals
  • Plant physiological responses to heavy metals
  • Phytoremediation
  • Heavy metal accumulation in plants
  • Toxicity
  • Tolerance
  • Detoxification

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Molecular Responses to Cadmium Exposure in Two Contrasting Durum Wheat Genotypes
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(14), 7343; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147343 - 08 Jul 2021
Viewed by 414
Abstract
Cadmium is a heavy metal that can be easily accumulated in durum wheat kernels and enter the human food chain. Two near-isogenic lines (NILs) with contrasting cadmium accumulation in grains, High-Cd or Low-Cd (H-Cd NIL and L-Cd NIL, respectively), were used to understand [...] Read more.
Cadmium is a heavy metal that can be easily accumulated in durum wheat kernels and enter the human food chain. Two near-isogenic lines (NILs) with contrasting cadmium accumulation in grains, High-Cd or Low-Cd (H-Cd NIL and L-Cd NIL, respectively), were used to understand the Cd accumulation and transport mechanisms in durum wheat roots. Plants were cultivated in hydroponic solution, and cadmium concentrations in roots, shoots and grains were quantified. To evaluate the molecular mechanism activated in the two NILs, the transcriptomes of roots were analyzed. The observed response is complex and involves many genes and molecular mechanisms. We found that the gene sequences of two basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factors (bHLH29 and bHLH38) differ between the two genotypes. In addition, the transporter Heavy Metal Tolerance 1 (HMT-1) is expressed only in the low-Cd genotype and many peroxidase genes are up-regulated only in the L-Cd NIL, suggesting ROS scavenging and root lignification as active responses to cadmium presence. Finally, we hypothesize that some aquaporins could enhance the Cd translocation from roots to shoots. The response to cadmium in durum wheat is therefore extremely complex and involves transcription factors, chelators, heavy metal transporters, peroxidases and aquaporins. All these new findings could help to elucidate the cadmium tolerance in wheat and address future breeding programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals Accumulation, Toxicity and Detoxification in Plants 2.0)
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