Tolerance, uptake and accumulation of cadmium in Matthiola chenopodiifolia Fisch & C. A. Mey (Brassicaceae)

Cadmium is a non-essential divalent heavy metal cation. The toxic level of Cd may be caused by natural soil charscteristics or by human activity. Cd has been shown to cause many morphological, physiological, biochemical and structural changes in growing plants. Meanwhile, some plant species can grow in Cd-contaminated soil and are able to uptake and accumulate this element in their tissues. Matthiola chenopodiifolia, is a plant that is able to grow in heavy metals contaminated soils in Irankouh mining area. In this study, in order to determine the potentiality of this plant to accumulate of Cd, it was grown under different concentration of Cd in laboratory conditions. The seeds of M. chenopodiifolia were collected from plants grown on contaminated soils (Irankouh) and uncontaminated soils (Soffeh) around Isfahan. Plants were grown in hydroponic system with modified Hoagland nutrient solution for 10 days. Then, the plants were treated with Cd concentrations of 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 ppm for 24 days. Results showed that the root and shoot dry weight in both populations were decreased with increasing concentration of cadmium. Also root tolerance index in both populations significantly decreased (P<0.05). In addition, both populations of M. chenopodiifolia were able to accumulate cadmium in their roots and shoots under all concentration of Cd. Uptake and accumulation of Cd were increased by increasing Cd concentration. Also, both populations had no significant differences in response to Cd, therefore, M. chenopodiifolia had an innate tolerance to Cd and was a very useful plant for phytoremediating of Cd from contaminated soils.