Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2006, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (4): 363-367.

• 实验简报 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Isolation and Analysis for Arsenic Tolerance of Protoplasts from an Arsenic Hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata

Bao Zhan, Wenzhong Xu, Mi Ma   

  1. (Key Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environmental Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093)
  • Received:2006-02-10 Revised:2006-04-20 Online:2006-07-06 Published:2006-07-06
  • Contact: Mi Ma

Abstract: Pteris vittata was the first identified arsenic (As) hyperaccumulator. Because of this characteristic, it is a good species for studying the acclimatization of plants to environmental stress, especially research on the mechanism of hyperaccumulation and resistance to As. Besides being able to absorb As from soil to root, the species also possesses a highly efficient root-to-shoot transport system for the metalloid, which results in a large ratio of shoot-to-root As concentration. To understanding the resistance of the fern cells to As and comparison to other plants that do not possess the hyperaccumulator characteristics, we studied the conformation of the protoplast and its resistance to As. Protoplasts of the fern were extracted with use of enzymes. The resistance of the fern protoplast surpasses that of tobacco; thus, we have revealed a faster system for identifying resistance to metalloids.