Comparative understanding of metal hyperaccumulation in plants: a mini-review
Abstract
Hyperaccumulator plants are ideal models for investigating the regulatory mechanisms of plant metal homeostasis and environmental adaptation due to their notable traits of metal accumulation and tolerance. These traits may benefit either the biofortification of essential mineral nutrients or the phytoremediation of nonessential toxic metals. A common mechanism by which elevated expression of key genes involved in metal transport or chelation contributes to hyperaccumulation and hypertolerance was proposed mainly from studies examining two Brassicaceae hyperaccumulators, namely Arabidopsis halleri and Noccaea caerulescens (formerly Thlaspi caerulescens). Meanwhile, recent findings regarding systems outside the Brassicaceae hyperaccumulators indicated that functional enhancement of key genes might represent a strategy evolved by hyperaccumulator plants. This review provides a brief outline of metal hyperaccumulation in plants and highlights commonalities and differences among various hyperaccumulators.
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Hyperaccumulator plant species have evolved adaptations for hypertolerance and detoxification of metals and metalloids.
“In addition, these plant species have evolved to possess adaptations for hypertolerance and detoxification of metal and metalloids (Angulo-Bejarano et al., 2021; Peng et al., 2021; Rai et al., 2021).”
From Plant hyperaccumulators: a state-of-the-art review on mechanism of heavy metal transport and sequestration (2025) · cites this paper as Peng et al., 2021
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Chen, L., Beiyuan, J., Hu, W., Zhang, Z., Duan, C., Cui, Q., Zhu, X., He, H., Huang, X., & Fang, L. (2022) · Chemosphere · doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133577 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
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“In addition, these plant species have evolved to possess adaptations for hypertolerance and detoxi fi cation of metal and metalloids (Angulo-Bejarano et al., 2021; Peng et al., 2021; Rai et al., 2021).”
- Authors
- Peng, J.-S., Guan, Y.-H., Lin, X.-J., Xu, X.-J., Xiao, L., Wang, H.-H., & Meng, S.
- Affiliations
- Hunan University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Hunan Agricultural University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Peng, Jia-Shi
- Meng, Shuan
- Venue
- Environmental Geochemistry and Health
- Published
- 2020-02-14
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1599-1607
- ISSN
- 0269-4042 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2983
- OpenAlex
- W3005630919
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 0.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Geochemistry and Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700212)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Heavy metals in environment
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Analytical Chemistry › Heavy Metals in Plants
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Micronutrient Interactions and Effects
- Keywords
- metal hyperaccumulation, hyperaccumulator plants, plant metal homeostasis, metal tolerance, phytoremediation, biofortification, metal transport genes, metal chelation, Arabidopsis halleri, Noccaea caerulescens, Brassicaceae
- MeSH terms
- Biodegradation, Environmental, Metals, Plants
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