Abstract
Plants play a pivotal role in cleaning up air pollution by taking up pollutants from the atmosphere and convert them into harmless compounds. We have been investigating the potential of plants to mitigate atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air pollutant. We found a 657-fold difference in NO2 assimilation capability between the highest and lowest values of 217 plant taxa. Genetic manipulation of genes involved in the nitrate assimilation pathway supported the hypothesis that NO2 is metabolized in the nitrate assimilation pathway in plants. Using the ion-beam irradiation method, we produced a novel cultivar (named “KNOX”) of Ficus pumila having significantly greater NO2 mitigation capability as compared with the wild type control plants. KNOX is being used as a plant for green walls.
