CONTROLLING HEAVY METAL ACCUMULATION IN PLANTS

The present study is aimed at understanding the interactions between plants, microorganisms and heavy metals. We have considered a natural environment, in Northern France, that shows high cadmium, zinc and lead pollution. Plants of the metal hyperaccumulator Arabidopsis halleri were collected together with their rhyzospheric soil. Several bacterial strains were then isolated from this soil and identified. Among these, a strain of Pseudomonas putida was considered for further analyses. Proteomic analysis was performed on this strain (called P. putida-Cd001) grown with and without Cd added to the nutrient medium. The differential patterns of protein expression were visualized by two dimensional electrophoresis technique and proteins were identified by MS analysis. Results showed that many different membrane proteins were up-regulated upon Cd treatment, in particular membrane transporters.