UCSD biologists discover key step for 'designer plants' that could clean up he...( roots and enhancing long-distance cadmi...)

Cleaning up a site contaminated with heavy metals usually requires extensive bulldozing to remove the affected soil. This is very costly, damaging to the environment and requires a disposal site for the contaminated soil. Plants that can take up and store heavy metals could be a practical and relatively cost effective way of cleaning up contaminated sites. Plants could be grown, harvested and then incinerated to concentrate the heavy metals. Depending on the level of contamination, it might take multiple seasons of growing, harvesting and incinerating the plants to get the concentration of heavy metals in the soil to a safe range.

At present, the researchers concede that they do not understand the mechanism by which phytochelatins are transported from the roots to the shoots. But by better understanding how this occurs, it might be possible to optimize accumulation of heavy metals.

However, as a cautionary note, Schroeder points out, "Over-expressing this gene probably wouldn't be enough to make plants useful for bioremediation. You would likely need to manipulate other genes in the heavy metal detoxification gene pathway."

David Lee, a postdoctoral fellow in Schroeder's lab also contributed to the discovery, which was supported by the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences Superfund and National Science Foundation.

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Contact: Sherry Seethaler
sseethaler@ucsd.edu
858-534-4656
University of California - San Diego
8-Aug-2003