Objective
The widespread moderate levels of metal pollution, clearly above European standards, have led to limitations in landuse, and soil remediation is needed. Phytoremediation, the use of plants for cleaning metal-polluted soils, is of low cost, environmentally sound and equally protective of human health and the environment, and should be considered a good alternative to current techniques. Natural plants have serious limitations. The present state of knowledge on the mechanisms of metal tolerance, uptake and accumulation is limited and does not allow construction of designer plants for remediation. Metal-responsive genes will be characterized (functional genomic) from metal-hyperaccumulatingThlaspi and expressed in yeast, Arabidopsis and higher biomass producing tobacco and Basic. Entophytes andrhizosphere microorganisms will be isolated, modified and tested, in combination with the plant, for improved metalaccumulation. GM and non-GM approaches will be compared in laboratory and greenhouse studies. Risk assessment of the approach will form a central core of the studies. The goal is to develop systems for improved phytoaccumulation of metals.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
1627 KUOPIO
Finland