Strategies of cadmium and zinc resistance in willow by regulation of net accumulation

This work was performed to find out if metal resistant clones of Salix viminalis L. are capable to achieve high resistance to the metals by regulating their net accumulation. Salix clones with low or high resistance in combination with low or high accumulation capacity of either Zn or Cd were cultivated from cuttings in nutrient solution. The investigation included leakage and uptake experiments using ⁶⁵Zn or ¹⁰⁹Cd and analysis of root cation exchange capacity (CEC). Some plants were pre-treated with unlabeled 0.5 μM Cd or 2.5 μM Zn 24 h prior to the experiments to induce possible tolerance mechanisms. To find out if the regulation was a metabolic process, experiments were also performed with 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP). Clones with high resistance and low Cd accumulation had higher efflux of Cd compared to the other clones, in both untreated and Cd pre-treated plants. This indicates a constitutive property to lower Cd accumulation by high Cd leakage. Pre-treatment with 0.5 μM Cd diminished the Cd net uptake to a level near zero in all clones, likely to be due to decreased the Cd uptake. In contrast, resistant clones with high Cd accumulation had the highest root CEC, which may be used to bind up Cd in the free space. No clear regulation of Zn net uptake was found in Zn-resistant clones. Pre-treatment with Zn decreased the uptake of Zn into the free space in Zn-resistant clones. The resistant high-accumulating clones, however, showed the highest leakage of Zn in both untreated and pre-treated plants, a constitutive process not related to high accumulation. Neither the influx nor the efflux of Cd or Zn was affected by DNP indicating passive transport across the plasma membrane.