Effects of ascorbic acid addition on the oxidative stress response of Oryza sativa L. plants to As(V) exposure.

Accumulation of noxious elements in the edible part of crops and its impact on food safety is of increasing concern. Rice is one of the major staple food crops worldwide, including arsenic (As)-polluted areas, in which dietary As exposure is becoming a widespread health threat. Plant chemical priming has been shown to be an effective strategy to enhance tolerance to environmental stresses, including metal(loid) exposure. The priming effect of ascorbic acid (AsA) was assessed in rice seedlings exposed to As(V) in a hydroponics experiment. AsA treatment (co-addition to the growing media concomitantly (t0) or 24 h in advance (t24)) prevented an excessive accumulation of As in the roots (that decreased âˆ¼ 60%) and stimulated the activities of photosynthetic and antioxidant attributes (∼1.2-fold) in the aerial part of the plants. The increase in proline levels in both shoots (∼2.1-fold) and roots (∼2.4-fold) was found to be the most sensitive stress parameter, and was able to reflect the AsA-induced reduction of As toxic effects (concentrations back to Control levels, both simultaneously added or added as a pretreatment) in the aerial part of the plants. However, the phytotoxic effects related to As exposure were not fully prevented by priming with AsA, and further research is needed to find alternative priming approaches.

Response of Phragmites australis to increasing As(V) concentrations: Accumulation and speciation of As, and plant oxidative stress.

The use of macrophytes has been proposed recently as a suitable option for the phytostabilization or rhizofiltration of soils or waters contaminated by trace elements. As one of the most representative species of this type of plant, common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.) has shown tolerance to high concentrations of potentially hazardous elements, as is the case of arsenic. However, a deeper knowledge of how these plants deal with this toxicity, including their oxidative response, is needed for the optimum utilization of this species in phytoremediation procedures. In fact, little is known about how common reed plants react to As toxicity or the tolerance limits and accumulation potential of this species. In this work, common reed plants were exposed to a range of As(V) mass concentrations (0.5-10 mg L-1) in a hydroponic experiment, and the performance of the plants (growth, photosynthetic pigments, and oxidative stress related parameters) was evaluated and related to the major As species present in the different parts of the plants. The plants did not show any apparent symptom of toxicity and no significant effects were found for any of the different plant parameters analyzed. Arsenic was mostly accumulated as As(III) in the roots of the plants, and almost no translocation to the aerial part of the plants was observed for any of the As species analyzed. Common reed has shown a high capacity for As accumulation in its roots with no signs of toxicity, despite small nutrient imbalances. Thus, it can be considered to be a good candidate for use in the rhizofiltration and phytostabilization of As contaminated waters and soils, respectively.

Differential response of Oryza sativa L. and Phragmites australis L. plants in trace elements contaminated soils under flooded and unflooded conditions.

Drastic changes in the water regime of trace elements (TEs) contaminated soils under semiarid conditions, from completely dry to flooding situations, may alter the solubility of the contaminants and, therefore, their potential mobility and availability to plants. Certain macrophyte species have shown a promising suitability for their use in the phytoremediation of TEs contaminated soils under fluctuating flooded-unflooded conditions, as a consequence of their high resistance and tolerance to contamination. Similarly, different water conditions occur during rice (Oryza sativa) cultivation, a species often used as a model plant for TEs toxicity studies. The aim of this work was to study the tolerance and oxidative response to TEs of common reed (Phragmites australis) and rice grown in contaminated mining soils, when exposed to different water saturation conditions. Both species (common reed and rice) were cultivated in three different contaminated soils from the Sierra Minera of La Unión-Cartagena (SE-Spain) under contrasting water saturation conditions (flooded and unflooded) in a pot experiment. Soil EC and elevated metal (mainly Cd and Zn) soluble concentrations conditioned the survival of the plants. Whereas, As accumulation in the aerial part of both species influenced the most oxidative stress homeostasis. Common reed showed to be a good candidate for its use in the phytostabilization of TEs contaminated soils under both flooded and unflooded conditions.

Major As species, lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation in rice plants exposed to increasing As(V) concentrations.

Arsenic (As) uptake by plants is mainly carried out as arsenate (As(V)), whose chemical analogy with phosphate is largely responsible for its elevated toxicity. Arsenate is known to stimulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation in plants that provoke oxidative stress. This manuscript reports the results of a hydroponics study using rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings as a test plant, where the effects of increasing arsenate concentrations (0-10 mg L-1) on both lipid and protein oxidation, as well as As accumulation and speciation in plant roots and shoots were examined. Plant yield was negatively affected by increasing As concentration. Accumulation in plant roots was higher than in shoots at low arsenate doses (0.5-2.5 mg L-1), while root to shoot transport was drastically enhanced at the highest doses (5 and 10 mg L-1). Moreover, As(V) was the dominating species in the shoots and As(III) in the roots. Rice leaves in the 10 mg As L-1 treatment showed the highest lipid peroxidation damage (malondialdehyde concentration), whilst protein oxidation was not remarkably influenced by As dose. Lipid peroxidation seems to be therefore conditioned by As accumulation in rice plants, particularly by the presence of high As(V) concentrations in the aerial part of the plants as a consequence of unregulated translocation from roots to shoots above a threshold concentration (1.25-2.5 mg L-1) in the growing media. These results provide relevant information regarding As(V) toxic concentrations for rice plants, highlight the importance of major As species analysis in plant tissues regarding As toxicity and contribute to better understand plants response to elevated As concentrations in the growing media.