GENETIC ASPECTS OF HEAVY METALS PHYTOREMEDIATION ABILITIES OF SUNFLOWER PLANTS
Abstract
A land race of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) collected from Burg-el-Arab region; 70 km west of Alexandria city, was used in the present study. Achene samples were treated with EMS (0.2% for 3.5 hours), then tolerant genotypes were selected (intensity of selection was 5%) after zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, cadmium chloride, and nickel chloride stress treatments. Tolerant lines and their corresponding non-selected controls were characterized using DNA molecular markers (PCR based RAPD analysis, with 10 random primers). Differences in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities were also monitored in Zn-tolerant, Cutolerant, Cd-tolerant, Ni-tolerant lines, and their corresponding controls.
Selected lines proved to be significantly tolerant, to their specific heavy metal, when compared with the controls under greenhouse conditions. A 600 bp fragment amplified by primer “O10” seems also to be specific to Nitolerant line. SOD activity seems also to be nonspecific to the studied heavy metals, but it increases in response to abiotic stresses in general. On the other hand, GST activity increased significantly in Cd-tolerant line compared with the other selected lines or the non-selected controls. These findings suggest that proper selection programs can produce genotypes tolerant to heavy metals in sunflower plants.
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