Identification of helianthus annuus proteins that are upregulated when exposed to heavy metals

Abstract

Plants have evolved the ability to extract, transport and use micronutrients from the soil. Many plants utilize this mechanism to accumulate toxic metals from the soil without incurring toxic effects. As a result, phytoremediation is gaining interest as a remediation technology. The study of model plants has shown that plants use a large amount of its genome to deal with stress, including heavy metal uptake and protection from the toxic effects. Although many genes have been identified, knowledge of the basic mechanisms of remediation is limited. Hydroponic and soil based experiments were conducted with two different dwarf sunflowers to identify what proteins were up-regulated as a response to heavy metal exposure. Two-dimensional gels of Helianthus annuus have isolated four proteins that were upregulated when the plants were exposed to arsenic or lead. This paper will discuss total metal uptake and translocation of arsenic and lead as well as the proteins that were upregulated as a result of metal sequestration.