Physiological and Biochemical Responses to Heavy Metals Stress in Plants

Abstract

Heavy metal (HM) toxicity is a severe abiotic stress that can cause significant harm to plant development and breeding, posing a challenge to sustainable agriculture. Various factors, including cellular toxicity, oxidative stress, osmotic stress, imbalance in the membrane, and metabolic homeostasis cause negative impacts on plant molecular, physiology and biochemistry. Some heavy metals (HMs) are essential micronutrients that play important roles in various plant processes, while excessive amounts can be harmful and have negative impacts on plant growth, metabolism, physiology, and senescence. Phytotoxicity with HMs and the deposition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and methylglyoxal (MG), can lead to lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, enzyme inactivation, DNA damage, and harm to other vital components of plant cells. Generally, HM toxicity as environmental stress led to response of plant with different mechanisms, first, the stimulus to external stress, secondly all signals transduction to plant cell and finally it beginning to find appropriate actions to mitigate the adverse stress in terms of physiological, biochemical, and molecular in the cell to survive plant. The purpose of this review is to better understand how plants respond physiologically and biochemically to abiotic HM stress.

Examining Nicotinamide Application Methods in Alleviating Lead-Induced Stress in Spring Barley

“…Plants have evolved their own cellular defense mechanisms to avoid, tolerate, detoxify, or eliminate heavy metals [17,18]. These mechanisms involve changes at the molecular, biochemical, and physiological levels [18,19]. They encompass chelation by metallothionein or phytochelatin, compartmentalization in cell walls and intracellular vesicles, lignification, inhibition of direct uptake of heavy metals from the soil, and the neutralization mechanism for ROS [17].…”

“…Despite the array of defense mechanisms possessed by plants, their resilience is often overwhelmed by excessive levels of heavy metals. To support plant tolerance or alleviate heavy metal-induced stress at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels within the cell, various exogenous substances have been tested in numerous scientific studies [4,[19][20][21]. According to Feng et al (2023), exogenous substances are defined as various compounds necessary for plant growth and development.…”