Nickel biopathways in tropical nickel hyperaccumulating trees from Sabah (Malaysia)

Antony van Der Ent (1, 2) , Damien L. Callahan (3) , Barry N. Noller (2) , Jolanta Mesjasz-Przybylowicz (4) , Wojciech J. Przybylowicz (4, 5) , Alban Barnabas (4) , Hugh H. Harris (6)

1 LSE - Laboratoire Sols et Environnement
2 Sustainable Minerals Inst
3 Deakin University [Burwood]
4 iThemba LABS [National Research Foundation]
5 Fac Phys & Appl Comp Sci
6 Dept Chem

The extraordinary level of accumulation of nickel (Ni) in hyperaccumulator plants is a consequence of specific metal sequestering and transport mechanisms, and knowledge of these processes is critical for advancing an understanding of transition element metabolic regulation in these plants. The Ni biopathways were elucidated in three plant species, Phyllanthus balgooyi, Phyllanthus securinegioides (Phyllanthaceae) and Rinorea bengalensis (Violaceae), that occur in Sabah (Malaysia) on the Island of Borneo. This study showed that Ni is mainly concentrated in the phloem in roots and stems (up to 16.9% Ni in phloem sap in Phyllanthus balgooyi) in all three species. However, the species differ in their leaves – in P. balgooyi the highest Ni concentration is in the phloem, but in P. securinegioides and R. bengalensis in the epidermis and in the spongy mesophyll (R. bengalensis). The chemical speciation of Ni2+ does not substantially differ between the species nor between the plant tissues and transport fluids, and is unambiguously associated with citrate. This study combines ion microbeam (PIXE and RBS) and metabolomics techniques (GC-MS, LC-MS) with synchrotron methods (XAS) to overcome the drawbacks of the individual techniques to quantitatively determine Ni distribution and Ni2+ chemical speciation in hyperaccumulator plants.

Mots clés: ELEMENTAL DISTRIBUTION; NI-HYPERACCUMULATOR; SEBERTIA-ACUMINATA; QUANTITATIVE PIXE MICROANALYSIS; BERKHEYA-CODDII ROESSLER; NAC NUCLEAR MICROPROBE; PROTON MICROPROBE; ALYSSUM-MURALE; COMMERCIAL PHYTOEXTRACTION; PHYLLANTHUS-BALGOOYI

Mots clés: plante hyperaccumulatrice; phyllanthus; nickel; malaisie; bornéo; arbre

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Antony van Der Ent, Damien L. Callahan, Barry N. Noller, Jolanta Mesjasz-Przybylowicz, Wojciech J. Przybylowicz, et al.. Nickel biopathways in tropical nickel hyperaccumulating trees from Sabah (Malaysia). Scientific Reports, 2017, 7, pp.41861. ⟨10.1038/srep41861⟩. ⟨hal-01563603⟩