Tolerance and distribution of cadmium in an ornamental species Althaea rosea Cavan

Abstract

The ornamental plants of Althaea rosea Cavan. were exposed to cadmium (Cd) at concentrations of 0, 5, 10, 50 and 100 mg·kg⁻¹ to evaluate the potential of accumulation capacity and tolerance ability. The results showed that A. rosea was a Cd tolerance plant, and Cd accumulation was 4.57 mg·kg⁻¹ in shoot and 9.43 mg·kg⁻¹ in root at 100 mg·kg⁻¹ Cd concentration. The high tolerance ability could be explained by the distribution characteristics and the defense mechanism. The accumulated Cd was allocated in root, older leaves, and subcellular level of the cell wall and supernatant soluble fraction to protect the physiological leaves from damage. The defense systems included the enzyme systems of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) that could effectively eliminate the excessive ROS, and the non-enzymes system of total soluble proteins and non-protein thiols (NP-SH) that played an important role in detoxification. Thus, A. rosea could be used as a potential species for phytoremediation in Cd contaminated areas and beautify the environment.

Keywords:

• Accumulation capacity
• Althaea rosea
• cadmium
• phytoremediation
• tolerance ability

Disclosure statement

The authors have declared no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by The 111 Project B08011, The Basic Work of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China [No. 2011FY110300].