%0 Journal Article
%T Lead Tolerance and Accumulation in Hirschfeldia incana, a Mediterranean Brassicaceae from Metalliferous Mine Spoils
%A Florence Auguy
%A Mouna Fahr
%A Patricia Moulin
%A Ana£¿s Brugel
%A Laurent Laplaze
%A Mohamed El Mzibri
%A Abdelkarim Filali-Maltouf
%A Patrick Doumas
%A Abdelaziz Smouni
%J PLOS ONE
%D 2013
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0061932
%X Lead is a heavy metal of particular concern with respect to environmental quality and health. The lack of plant species that accumulate and tolerate Pb is a limiting factor to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in Pb tolerance. In this study we identified Hirschfeldia incana, a Brassicaceae collected from metalliferous mine spoils in Morocco, as a Pb accumulator plant. H. incana exhibited high Pb accumulation in mine soils and in hydroponic cultures. Major Pb accumulation occurred in the roots and a part of Pb translocated from the roots to the shoots, even to the siliques. These findings demonstrated that H. incana is a Pb accumulator species. The expression of several candidate genes after Pb-exposure was measured by quantitative PCR and two of them, HiHMA4 and HiMT2a, coding respectively for a P1B-type ATPase and a metallothionein, were particularly induced by Pb-exposure in both roots and leaves. The functional characterization of HiHMA4 and HiMT2a was achieved using Arabidopsis T-DNA insertional mutants. Pb content and primary root growth analysis confirmed the role of these two genes in Pb tolerance and accumulation. H. incana could be considered as a good experimental model to identify genes involved in lead tolerance and accumulation in plants.
%U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0061932