Heavy metal accumulation and tolerance in a halophyte species Salicornia europaea

Abstract

A glasswort (Salicornia europaea), one of the halophytes belonging to the Chenopodiaceae, accumulates a large amount of alkaline and alkaline-earth metals in vacuoles, and tolerates high salt environments. We examined in this study the accumulation of heavy metals in the shoot of S. europaea. S. europaea were aseptically grown on Murashige-Skoog solid media reduced in nitrogen content to one-tenth and supplemented with 0.3 M NaCl. Six-day old seedlings were supplied with one of heavy metals. Fresh weight, dry weight, and metal content of the shoot of S. europaea were estimated at 28 days after sowing. Application of Mn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cr³⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Hg²⁺ at the concentrations of 10, 2, 1.5, 1, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.02 mM, respectively, inhibited 50% of the plant weight. S. europaea accumulated Mn²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Zn²⁺ of 5.5, 1.1, and 0.54 mg g^-1 dry matter in shoots, respectively.