Get to know more about the effects of arsenic contamination on plants.
What can connect ageing with arsenic poisoning? Epigenetic changes occur in all living organisms. They are associated with ageing processes and under adverse conditions can contribute to the development of cancer, nerve and autoimmune diseases due to oxidative stress. These changes in epigenetic regulatory mechanisms are induced by methylation and demethylation of DNA. Methylation causes the gene to be silences, while DNA demethylation reactivates it. Of course, the mentioned changes also occur in plants, where they are associated with ageing and induction of stress metabolism. This prevents the plant from being exposed to active forms of oxygen. The aim of the published study, which was created in cooperation with the Department of botany and plant physiology of the CZU in Prague, IEB Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and UCT, was the assessment of differences in the effect of arsenic soil contamination on stress metabolism of young and old leaves of ferns (Pteris cretica ´Albo-lineata´), which are hyperaccumulators of arsenic. The results of the study have confirmed that DNA methylation is associated with ageing of plants and the toxicity of arsenic. Significant changes induced by oxidative stress, which degrades photosynthetic pigments and subsequently reduce photosynthesis, were notable in old leaves. At the same time, low values of water potential and increased lignification of cell walls of the roots were established, this limits the transport of assimilated metabolites and water from the roots to the aboveground parts of the plant
The complete scientific paper can be found here:
ZEMANOVÁ Veronika, Marek POPOV, Daniela PAVLÍKOVÁ, Pavel KOTRBA, František HNILIČKA, Jana ČESKÁ a Milan PAVLÍK. Effect of arsenic stress on 5-methylcytosine, photosynthetic parameters and nutrient content in arsenic hyperaccumulator Pteris cretica (L.) var. Albo-lineata. BMC Plant Biology [online]. 2020, 20(1) [cit. 2020-11-19]. ISSN 1471-2229. Dostupné z: doi:10.1186/s12870-020-2325-6