Blepharidium guatemalense, an obligate nickel hyperaccumulator plant from non-ultramafic soils in Mexico

Abstract

kindly supplied a hand-held XRF instrument for herbarium scanning. This research was partly undertaken at P06 at at Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF). The research leading to this result has been also supported by the project CALIPSOplus under the Grant Agreement 730872 from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020. The micro-XRF instrumentation used in this study was cofunded by ICEEL (Carnot Institute)-CREGU-LabEX Ressources 21 (ANR-10-LABX 21-LABEX RESSOURCES 21) and FEDER. Special acknowledgments are made to MSc Blanca V. Juarez Jaimes (MEXU herbarium) for plant identification, to MSc. Jorge A. Ramírez Espinosa, Ing. Francisco Navarrete Torralba and all the students from the Universidad Tecnológica de la Selva (UTS) for their valuable contribution during the field surveys and for their current investment in this research. The authors are also grateful to Haley Disinger for the enrichment of the database (XRF screening data from the MO herbarium in Saint Louis), to Vanessa Invernon for her support at the Paris herbarium (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris) and to all the technicians from MEXU herbarium for their valuable cooperation.We would like to thank Kathryn Spiers and Jan Garrevoet for their assistance during the experiments.We wish to thank Professor Alan Baker (The Universities of Melbourne and Queensland, Australia) for reviewing the paper and suggesting improvements to the text.

The X-ray fluorescence screening of multiple elements in herbarium specimens from the Neotropical region reveals new records of metal accumulation in plants

“…confirmed the capacity of Phyllanthus nummularoides from the Dominican Republic to hyperaccumulate Ni. More interestingly, we measured high concentration of Ni in leaves of Blepharidium guatemalense (≡ B. mexicanum, Rubiaceae) and in four Orthion (Violaceae) species O. caudatum, O. malpighiifolium, O. oblanceolatum and O. subsessile, as well as in the closely related monospecific genus Mayanea (M. caudata) from Guatemala, that were recently identified as new Ni hyperaccumulators from Guatemala and Mexico 52,53. …”

Detection of orthologous genes with expression shifts linked to nickel hyperaccumulation across Eudicots

“…The identification of such pairs of closely related species with contrasted traits may represent a limiting condition in some genera. For example, the nickel hyperaccumulator Blepharidium guatemalense represents a monotypic genus (Navarrete Gutiérrez et al ., 2021), and all species of the Cuban genus Leucocroton are able to hyperaccumulate nickel (Reeves et al ., 1996). In addition, the output of pairwise comparisons to identify genes linked to a specific trait such as metal hyperaccumulation, strongly depends on the particular pair of species chosen for the comparison (Halimaa et al ., 2014; Meier et al ., 2018; García de la Torre et al ., 2021).…”

Intensive cycling of nickel in a New Caledonian forest dominated by hyperaccumulator trees

“…, 2016; Navarrete Gutiérrez et al. , 2021). However, the highest recorded concentration of Ni occurs in the blue–green latex of Pycnandra acuminata (Pierre ex Baill.)…”

“…Baker (Phyllanthaceae) has been reported to accumulate up to 16.0 wt % DW Ni in phloem sap and Blepharidium guatemalense Standl. (Rubiaceae) leaves accumulate up to 4.3 wt% DW Ni (Mesjasz-Przybylowicz et al, 2016;Navarrete Guti errez et al, 2021). However, the highest recorded concentration of Ni occurs in the blue-green latex of Pycnandra acuminata (Pierre ex Baill.)…”