title: Effects of calcium at toxic concentrations of cadmium in plants.
abstract: This review provides new insight that calcium plays important roles in plant growth, heavy metal accumulation and translocation, photosynthesis, oxidative damage and signal transduction under cadmium stress. Increasing heavy metal pollution problems have raised word-wide concerns. Cadmium (Cd), being a highly toxic metal, poses potential risks both to ecosystems and human health. Compared with conventional technologies, phytoremediation, being cost-efficient, highly stable and environment-friendly, is believed to be a promising green technology for Cd decontamination. However, Cd can be easily taken up by plants and may cause severe phytotoxicity to plants, thus limiting the efficiency of phytoremediation. Various researches are being done to investigate the effects of exogenous substances on the mitigation of Cd toxicity to plants. Calcium (Ca) is an essential plant macronutrient that involved in various plant physiological processes, such as plant growth and development, cell division, cytoplasmic streaming, photosynthesis and intracellular signaling transduction. Due to the chemical similarity between Ca and Cd, Ca may mediate Cd-induced physiological or metabolic changes in plants. Recent studies have shown that Ca could be used as an exogenous substance to protect plants against Cd stress by the alleviation of growth inhibition, regulation of metal uptake and translocation, improvement of photosynthesis, mitigation of oxidative damages and the control of signal transduction in the plants. The effects of Ca on toxic concentrations of Cd in plants are reviewed. This review also provides new insight that plants with enhanced Ca level have improved resistance to Cd stress.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China. huangdanlian@hnu.edu.cn.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China. huangdanlian@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Danlian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Xiaomin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China. liuyunguo2012@yeah.net.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China. liuyunguo2012@yeah.net.
authors.forename: Yunguo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Cui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bashir
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Dafei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Piao
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.|Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002104:Cadmium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000187:drug effects; D010944:Plants / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium; D002118:Calcium
keywords: Metal accumulation; Oxidative stress; Photosynthesis; Signal transduction