AUTHOR=Anjum Naser A. , Hasanuzzaman Mirza , Hossain Mohammad A. , Thangavel Palaniswamy , Roychoudhury Aryadeep , Gill Sarvajeet S. , Rodrigo Miguel A. Merlos , Adam Vojtěch , Fujita Masayuki , Kizek Rene , Duarte Armando C. , Pereira Eduarda , Ahmad Iqbal TITLE=Jacks of metal/metalloid chelation trade in plants—an overview JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2015.00192 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2015.00192 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

Varied environmental compartments including soils are being contaminated by a myriad toxic metal(loid)s (hereafter termed as “metal/s”) mainly through anthropogenic activities. These metals may contaminate food chain and bring irreparable consequences in human. Plant-based approach (phytoremediation) stands second to none among bioremediation technologies meant for sustainable cleanup of soils/sites with metal-contamination. In turn, the capacity of plants to tolerate potential consequences caused by the extracted/accumulated metals decides the effectiveness and success of phytoremediation system. Chelation is among the potential mechanisms that largely govern metal-tolerance in plant cells by maintaining low concentrations of free metals in cytoplasm. Metal-chelation can be performed by compounds of both thiol origin (such as GSH, glutathione; PCs, phytochelatins; MTs, metallothioneins) and non-thiol origin (such as histidine, nicotianamine, organic acids). This paper presents an appraisal of recent reports on both thiol and non-thiol compounds in an effort to shed light on the significance of these compounds in plant-metal tolerance, as well as to provide scientific clues for the advancement of metal-phytoextraction strategies.