FP5 - QLK3-2000-00479 An integrated approach towards removal by plants of toxic metals from polluted soils (METALLOPHYTES)

Abstract

This project represents an integrated approach towards the efficient removal of toxic metals from polluted soils using plants (phytoremediation). Our objectives are to identify and further characterise components with the potential to be useful for phytoremediation, as well as to apply the knowledge towards generating plants with desirable qualities for safe, cost-effective phytoextraction of toxic metals. Through phytoremediation we expect to reclaim land currently deemed unusable for agriculture. This will be both ecologically and economically beneficial to the agricultural community throughout European Union.

Objectives

Many soils, e.g. industrial waste grounds, are contaminated by environmentally harmful heavy metals. Our objective is to determine the genes essential for metal tolerance and homeostasis in plants. Using this information we propose to turn high-biomass plants with extensive and highly branched roots into metal accumulators by use of genetic manipulation. The metal-containing plants can be harvested and processed for concentration of the toxic metals.

Activities

Within Europe more than 4 million ha are reputed to be contaminated with heavy metals. The decontamination of such soils by mechanical or chemical methods has turned out to be prohibitively expensive. An alternative method is to use plants that naturally accumulate heavy metals (hyperaccumulators) for decontamination of such soils. However, most natural metal accumulators are inefficient for phytoremediation due to slow growth and low biomass. Within the frame of our consortium, genes responsible for heavy metal uptake and tolerance will be introduced in Festuca, a grass species with high biomass, a deep root system that is amenable to genetic manipulation. Strategies for biomobilisation of heavy metals in the soil by genetically modified Festuca species will be exploited. Our attempts to liberate heavy metals from the soil will be based on secretion of acids by the plants and by targeted over-expression of appropriate transgenes in the root. As a group the partners have already identified many candidate genes. How they contribute to heavy metal homeostasis/tolerance will be tested initially in the model plant Arabidopsis. The more strategic aspects of the programme will result in the identification and characterisation of new genes involved in heavy metal tolerance and transport.

Coordinator

The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Department of Plant Biology, Denmark

Partners

• Leibniz-Institu für Pflanzenbiochimie, Department of Stress and Developmental Biology, Weinberg, Germany
• Institut de Botanique, Laboratoire de Physiologie Végétale, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
• DLF-Trifolium, Research Division, Store Heddinge, Denmark
• School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, UK
• Max-Plack Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Golm, Germany
• University of York, Biology Department, The Plant Laboratory
  
  
  
  

  Contacts

  Contact:

  • Michael Gjedde PALMGREN / Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University Department of Plant Biology / DENMARK