Physiological and biochemical mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance

Abstract

Heavy metal contaminants are a serious problem worldwide to human health, animals and some plants. Phytoremediation, is a promising technology, which has gained wide acceptance in remediating the contaminants from the soil, which uses green plants known as hyperaccumulators. Biochemical mechanisms such as adsorption, transport, accumulation and translocation that are adopted by plants are of supreme importance in developing improved phytoremediation. Identification of suitable hyperaccumulating plants with remarkable biochemical mechanism, presents a fascinating success in the field of phytoremediation as well as other research area. The heavy metal extraction from the contaminated soil can be achieved through the genetically modified plants, to achieve effective hyperaccumulation.