Metals are important environmental pollutants and their toxicity is a problem of increasing significance for ecological, nutritional, and environmental reasons. These pollutants, ultimately derived from a growing number of diverse anthropogenic sources (industrial effluents and wastes, urban runoff, sewage treatment plants, boating activities, agricultural fungicide runoff, domestic garbage dumps, and mining operations), have progressively affected more and more different ecosystems. Even agricultural lands are progressively becoming enriched of metals due to long-term use of phosphatic fertilizers, sewage sludge application, dust from smelters, industrial waste and bad watering practices in agricultural lands.Among these metals, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo and Zn are pivotal micronutrients, while Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Sb and V and are non-essential for plants and have no known function as nutrients and seem to be more or less toxic to all plants and microorganisms. Sodium excess deserves particular attention. Several agricultural lands are indeed becoming familiar with the problem of salinization, due to the use of fresh water which contains a high level of NaCl or due to intensive fertilization, especially in arid and semi-arid environments characterized by poor rainfalls. Overall, the presence of both essential and non-essential metals in the atmosphere, soil and water, in excessive amounts, can cause serious problems to all organisms. Knowledge of plant-metal interactions is important for the safety of the environment, but also for reducing the risks associated with the introduction of trace metals into the food chain. Although intense research has been conducted during the last 30 years, many aspects remain to be clarified concerning the effect of metals in higher plants.Our goal for this book is to critically review existing literature related to the specific effects of different metals in plants, as well as to provide new evidence about plant-metal interactions in order to clarify mechanisms of metal uptake, translocation, and partitioning and the effect of metal toxicity. Consequences related to accumulation of metals in food products have been described. Physiological and biochemical mechanisms adopted by plants to cope with metal excess and possible implications for phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soils are also discussed. Therefore, we believe that this book will provide a comprehensive overview regarding some aspects of metal toxicity in plants and it will be useful for scientist working in this field of research, but it will also be of practical interest to environmentalists, policy-makers, and resource managers working on the topic. We wish to thank all the authors who joined this book project by contributing their valuable work. Lastly, we extend our sincere thanks to Nova Science Publishers for their efficient support.

Plant Metal Interaction: Emerging Remediation Techniques covers different heavy metals and their effect on soils and plants, along with the remediation techniques currently available. As cultivable land is declining day-by-day as a result of increased metals in our soil and water, there is an urgent need to remediate these effects. This multi-contributed book is divided into four sections covering the whole of plant metal interactions, including heavy metals, approaches to alleviate heavy metal stress, microbial approaches to remove heavy metals, and phytoremediation. - Provides an overview of the effect of different heavy metals on growth, biochemical reactions, and physiology of various plants - Serves as a reference guide for available techniques, challenges, and possible solutions in heavy metal remediation - Covers sustainable technologies in uptake and removal of heavy metals

Plants possess a range of potential cellular mechanisms that may be involved in the detoxification of heavy metals and thus tolerance to metal stress. Metal toxicity causes multiple direct and indirect effects in plants that concern practically all physiological functions. The main purpose of this book is to present comprehensive and concise information on recent advances in the field of metal transport and how genetic diversity affects heavy metal transport in plants. Other key futures of the book are related to metal toxicity and detoxification mechanisms, biochemical tools for HM remediation processes, molecular mechanisms for HM detoxification, how metallomics and metalloproteomics are affected by heavy metal stress in plants, and the role of ROS metabolism in the alleviation of heavy metals. Some chapters also focus on recent developments in the field of phytoremediation. Overall the book presents in-depth information and the most essential advances in the field of heavy metal toxicity in plants in recent years.

Trace metals occur as natural constituents of the earth's crust, and are ever present constituents of soils, natural waters and living matter. The biological significance of this disparate assemblage of elements has gradually been uncovered during the twentieth century; the resultant picture is one of ever-increasing complexity. Several of these elements have been demonstrated to be essential to the functions of living organisms, others appear to only interact with living matter in a toxic manner, whilst an ever-decreasing number do not fall conveniently into either category. When the interactions between trace metals and plants are considered, one must take full account of the known chemical properties of each element. Consideration must be given to differences in chemical reactivity, solubility and to interactions with other inorganic and organic molecules. A clear understanding of the basic chemical properties of an element of interest is an essential pre-requisite to any subsequent consideration of its biological significance. Due consideration to basic chemical considerations is a theme which runs through the collection of chapters in both volumes.

This title focuses on the many aspects of the interaction between plants and heavy metals. Not only it describes the effects of heavy metal toxicity on the plant cell and its organs but it also examines the mechanisms that plants adopt to scavenge heavy metals at cellular, physiological, and metabolic level. Plants and Heavy Metals also analyses Hyperaccumulator plants and shows their potential role in phytoremediation technologies in light of the recent research results.

The aim of this book is to give an overview of the most important aspects of physiological and biochemical basis for metal toxicity and tolerance in plants. The book is expected to serve as a reference to university and college teachers, students of plant sciences, environmental biology, environmental biotechnology, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, plant molecular biology, and genetics.

Major portion of the planet earth is covered by seas and oceans representing 96.5% of the planet’s water, playing a detrimental role in sustaining the plant including crop diversity and productivity for human consumption. Water resources contain both soluble and transition metals, which are easily absorbed by plants through roots as a first point of contact and subsequently play important physiological and biological functions in plants. Transition metals such as copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) contribute to the plant productivity by playing key functional roles in the photosynthesis. In addition, to their major role in regulating the plant productivity, they also play an important role by acting as homeostatic regulators in uni-parentally inherited chloroplasts and maintains the flow of the electron transfer. It is worthwhile to mention that they play a critical role as transporters, which acts as electron balancing units for managing the electrostatic potential across the membranes. In contrast, some metals such as Cd, As play a significant role in inducing the stress mechanism and influencing either directly or in-directly Haber-Weiss reactions either through the production of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) or through the membrane damage thus leading to leakage of membrane transporters. However, besides playing a detrimental role as transporters in plant system, excessive accumulation of these metals due to the increasing contamination in the marginal soil and water are posing important threats to the plant system. Realizing the toxic effects of the metals, several physiological evidences have been laid for the credence of the metal toxicity and their concurrent effect on plant productivity. Increasing effects of the metals as toxicants can have three adverse effects on the populations: population can move, persist via local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity, or die. Next generation sequencing studies have revolutionized our abilities to detect the changes in expression profiles across an array of genes, which can in-turn help to develop early markers of metal induced stress. Plant Metallomics and Functional Omics: A System-Wide Perspective focuses on the applications of the system wide understanding of the biological and functional interplay occurring at the juncture of the metalloid induced stress and toxicity. The main goal of this book is to familiarize the readers with the most up-to-date information on metal-induced physiological changes in plant species.