Journal of Environmental Biology

Cadmium: Toxicity and tolerance in plants

S. Aiman Hasan¹, Q. Fariduddin¹, B. Ali¹, S. Hayat*¹ and A. Ahmad²

¹Plant Physiology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh - 202 002, India

²Department of Applied Sciences, Higher College of Technology, Al-Khuwair-133, Sultanate of Oman

(Received: May 09, 2007 ; Revised received: September 22, 2007 ; Accepted: October 03, 2007)

Abstract: Of all the non-essential heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) is perhaps the metal which has attracted the most attention in soil science and plant nutrition due to its potential toxicity to humans, and also its relative mobility in the soil-plant system. This review summarizes the toxic symptoms of Cd in plants (i.e. growth retardation, alterations of photosynthesis, stomatal movement, enzymatic activities, water relations, interferences with mineral uptake, protein metabolism, membrane functioning, etc.) but also includes the mechanisms of cadmium uptake, translocation and deposition. Moreover, it also throws light on chelation, including identification of Cd ligands present in cytosol and vascular tissue. Cadmium-induced oxidative stress is also considered as one of the most widely studied topics in this review.

Key words: Cadmium, Carbonic anhydrase, Chelation, Chlorophyll, Net photosynthetic rate

PDF of full length paper is available with author (*hayat_68@yahoo.co.in)

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