TITLE:
Mercury Distribution in Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Cell
AUTHORS:
Shenghe Chang, Zhengjing Wu, Wei Sun, Fei Lin, Jingyi Zhang, Qi Zeng, Lan Qiao, Haiyan Shu
KEYWORDS:
Mercury, Distribution, Plant, Cell
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.9 No.4,
April
11,
2018
ABSTRACT: Problem: Removing mercury from
polluted soil using transgenic plants is an ideal method. However, where
mercury was stored in plant cell is not clear until now. Methods: Differential
centrifugation and laser scanning confocal microscopy were used in this study. Results and findings: Results showed that after
mercury was absorbed by tobacco plants, most of the mercury accumulated in
roots. Mercury content in root was significantly higher than that in shoot. In
the seedlings cultured in MS liquid medium containing 5 μmol/L mercuric
chloride, the mercury content in cell wall was 6.6 μg/g. The mercury content in
cell membrane fraction was 2.1 μg/g. The mercury content in supernatant
fraction was 35.1 μg/g. Most of the mercury accumulated in roots located in
liquid fraction, about 15% of the mercury was attached by cell wall. Only a
small part assembled in cell membrane. Most of the mercury in liquid fraction
located in vacuole. This suggested that after the mercury was accumulated in
plant root, most of the mercury was transferred into vacuole. There was no
important cellular organ in vacuole. The toxicity of mercury in vacuole will be
much lower than that in cell membrane or cellular organs. Recommendation: These results suggested
that much work should be focused on how to transfer the mercury in vacuole into
the above-ground tissues of the plants in the future.