Constitutional tolerance to heavy metals of a fiber crop, ramie (Boehmeria nivea), and its potential usage.
It is observed that ramie (Boehmeria nivea), an economic fiber crop, can establish and colonize metal-contaminated sites in China. Metal tolerance and accumulation by ramie originating from 13 metal-contaminated and 4 "clean" sites in China were compared under field and hydroponic conditions. All selected populations and germplasms displayed good growth performance under diverse metal-contaminated habitats; while growth responses, metal accumulation and tolerance were similar among the 8 populations and 2 germplasms when exposed to solutions containing elevated As, Cd, Pb, or Zn in the laboratory. These revealed that ramie possesses a certain degree of constitutional metal tolerance. To our knowledge, this is the first report of constitutional metal tolerance possessed by a fiber crop. Ramie can be considered as a good candidate for both fiber production and phytoremediation of sites contaminated by multi-metals, as it accumulates relative low metal concentrations, but possesses both high biomass and high economic value.
Yang
B
B
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
Zhou
M
M
Shu
W S
WS
Lan
C Y
CY
Ye
Z H
ZH
Qiu
R L
RL
Jie
Y C
YC
Cui
G X
GX
Wong
M H
MH
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D032402:Boehmeria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000633:toxicity*
D019216:Metals, Heavy