Phytoremediation of heavy metal contamination and related molecular mechanisms in plants

Abstract:

With the development of modern industry, heavy metal pollution of soil becomes more and more serious. Heavy metals can cause serious health problems to humans and animals even at very low concentrations. Thus, it is urgent to remediate the contaminated soils by effective methods. Different remediation strategies have been reported to remove heavy metals from contaminated soil, among which phytoremediation is the most important one. Understanding the mechanisms underlying heavy metal accumulation and detoxification in plants is one of the key points for phytoremediation. In this review, we try to summarize the progresses and trends on phytoremediation and related molecular mechanisms, and discuss the prospects for the future research.

Key words:heavy metal, soil contamination, hyperaccumulator, phytoremediation