Antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) are chemical analogs, but their behaviors in plants are different. To investigate the Sb uptake, translocation and speciation in As-hyperaccumulator P. cretica, a hydroponic experiment was conducted. In this study, P. cretica was exposed to 0.2-strength Hoagland nutrient solution, which contained 0.5 or 5 mg/L antimonite (SbIII) or antimonate (SbV). After 14 d exposure, P. cretica took up 1.4–2.8 times more SbIII than SbV. Since P. cretica was unable to translocate Sb, its roots accumulated >97% Sb with the highest at 7965 mg/kg. In both SbIII and SbV treatments, SbIII was the predominant species in P. cretica, with 90–100% and 46–100% SbIII in the roots. As the first barrier against Sb to enter plant cells, more Sb was accumulated in cell wall than cytosol or organelles. The results suggest that P. cretica may detoxify Sb by reducing SbV to SbIII and immobilizing it in root cell walls. Besides, the presence of SbIII significantly reduced the concentrations of dissolved organic C including organic acids in P. cretica root exudates. Further, increasing Sb levels promoted P accumulation in the plant, especially in the fronds, which may help P. cretica growth. The information from this study shed light on metabolic transformation of Sb in As-hyperaccumulators P. cretica, which helps to better understand Sb uptake and detoxification by plants.

The two forage species used in New Zealand pastoral agricultural systems, chicory (Cichorium intybus) and plantain (Plantago lanceolata) show differential ability to absorb and translocate cadmium (Cd) from roots to shoots. Chicory can accumulate Cd from even low Cd soils to levels that might exceed regulatory guidelines for Cd in fodder crops and food. Chicory and plantain were grown in soil-filled rhizocolumns under increasing Cd levels (0 (Control), 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mg Cd/kg soil) for 60 days and showed variable secretion of oxalic, fumaric, malic and acetic acids as a function of Cd treatment. Plant roots secrete such Low Molecular Weight Organic Acids into the rhizosphere soil, which can influence Cd uptake. Chicory showed significantly (P < 0.05) lower secretion of fumaric acid, and higher secretion of acetic acid than plantain at all Cd treatments. We propose that the significant secretion differences between the two species can explain the significantly (P < 0.05) higher shoot Cd concentration in chicory for all Cd treatments. Understanding the mechanism for increased uptake in chicory may lead to breeding or genetic modification which yield low Cd uptake cultivars needed to mitigate the risk of Cd accumulation in pastoral agricultural food chains from this increasingly important fodder crop.

Metal detoxification in plants is a complex process that involves different mechanisms, such as the retention of metals to the cell wall and their chelation and subsequent compartmentalization in plant vacuoles. In order to identify the mechanisms involved in metal accumulation and tolerance in Betula pubescens, as well as the role of mycorrhization in these processes, mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants were grown in two industrial soils with contrasting concentrations of heavy metals.Mycorrhization increased metal uptake at low metal concentrations in the soil and reduced it at high metal concentrations, which led to an enhanced growth and biomass production of the host when growing in the most polluted soil. Our results suggest that the sequestration on the cell wall is the main detoxification mechanism in white birch exposed to acute chronic metal-stress, while phytochelatins play a role mitigating metal toxicity inside the cells. Given its high Mn and Zn root-to-shoot translocation rate, Betula pubescens is a very promising species for the phytoremediation of soils polluted with these metals.

This study aims to assess the role of Fe plaque in metal uptake and translocation by different wetland plants and examine the effects of organic acids on metal detoxification in wetland plants. It was found that although exposed to a similar level of metals in rhizosphere soil solution, metal uptake by shoots of Cypercus flabelliformis and Panicum paludosum was greatly reduced, consequently leading to a better growth under flooded than under drained conditions. This may be related to the enhanced Fe plaque in the former, but due to the decreased root permeability in the latter under anoxic conditions. The Fe plaque on root surface has potential to sequester metals and then reduce metal concentrations and translocation in shoot tissues. However, whether the Fe plaque acts as a barrier to metal uptake and translocation may also be dependent on the root anatomy. Although metal tolerance in wetland plants mainly depends upon their metal exclusion ability, the higher-than-toxic-level of metal concentrations in some species indicates that internal metal detoxification might also exist. It was suggested that malic or citric acid in shoots of P. paludosum and C. flabelliformis may account for their internal detoxification for Zn.

Presence of microorganisms in soils strongly affects mobility of metals. This fact is often excluded when mobile metal fraction in soil is studied using extraction procedures. Thus, the first objective of this paper was to evaluate strain Aspergillus niger’s exometabolites contribution on aluminium mobilization. Fungal exudates collected in various time intervals during cultivation were analyzed and used for two-step bio-assisted extraction of alumina and gibbsite. Oxalic, citric and gluconic acids were identified in collected culture media with concentrations up to 68.4, 2.0 and 16.5 mmol L−1, respectively. These exometabolites proved to be the most efficient agents in mobile aluminium fraction extraction with aluminium extraction efficiency reaching almost 2.2%. However, fungal cultivation is time demanding process. Therefore, the second objective was to simplify acquisition of equally efficient extracting agent by chemically mimicking composition of main organic acid components of fungal exudates. This was successfully achieved with organic acids mixture prepared according to medium composition collected on the 12th day of Aspergillus niger cultivation. This mixture extracted similar amounts of aluminium from alumina compared to culture medium. The aluminium extraction efficiency from gibbsite by organic acids mixture was lesser than 0.09% which is most likely because of more rigid mineral structure of gibbsite compared to alumina. The prepared organic acid mixture was then successfully applied for aluminium extraction from soil samples and compared to standard single step extraction techniques. This showed there is at least 2.9 times higher content of mobile aluminium fraction in soils than it was previously considered, if contribution of microbial metabolites is considered in extraction procedures. Thus, our contribution highlights the significance of fungal metabolites in aluminium extraction from environmental samples, but it also simplifies the extraction procedure inspired by bio-assisted extraction of aluminium by common soil fungus A. niger.