Phytoremediation and phytosensing of chemical contaminants, RDX and TNT: identification of the required target genes.
High explosives such as hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) are important contaminants in the environment and phytoremediation has been viewed as a cost-effective abatement. There remains, however, an insufficient knowledge-base about how plants respond to explosives, especially in the steady state. Microarray analysis was conducted on Arabidopsis thaliana that were grown in Murashige and Skoog media containing steady-state levels of 0.5 mM RDX or 2.0 microM TNT to study the effect of these compounds on its transcriptional profile. Our results for both RDX and TNT were consistent with the existing theory for xenobiotic metabolism in plants. Among the genes that were differentially expressed included oxidoreductases, cytochrome P450s, transferases, transporters, and several unknown expressed proteins. We discuss the potential role of upregulated genes in plant metabolism, phytoremediation, and phytosensing. Phytosensing, the detection of field contamination using plants, is an end goal of this project.
Rao
Murali R
MR
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4561, USA.
Halfhill
Matthew D
MD
Abercrombie
Laura G
LG
Ranjan
Priya
P
Abercrombie
Jason M
JM
Gouffon
Julia S
JS
Saxton
Arnold M
AM
Stewart
C Neal
CN
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014227:Triazines / Q000378:metabolism*; D014303:Trinitrotoluene / Q000378:metabolism*
D053834:Explosive Agents; D014227:Triazines; D014303:Trinitrotoluene; C009160:cyclonite