Do arsenate reductase activities and oxalate exudation contribute to variations of arsenic accumulation in populations of Pteris vittata?

Purpose: Although arsenic (As) hyperaccumulation is a constitutive property for Pteris vittata, there is intraspecific variation in As accumulation among metallicolous (from As-contaminated soils) and nonmetallicolous populations (from uncontaminated soils) and the related mechanisms is still not clear.
Materials and methods: Pot trials, hydroponic culture, and manual simulation were conducted to investigate the roles of arsenate reductase and root exudates in accumulating As in P. vittata, which were collected from two uncontaminated sites including Sun Yat-sen University campus, Guangdong Province (ZD), and a botanical garden in Guangxi Academy of Forestry Sciences, Nanning City, Guangxi Province (NN), and two As and Pb/Zn mining and/or smelting sites located in Shaoguan of Guangdong Province (SG) and Guiyang of Hunan Province (GY).
Results and discussion: The nonmetallicolous populations (ZD and NN) possessed more efficient uptake of arsenate and arsenite than the metallicolous populations (SG and GY). There were significant (p < 0.05) difference in arsenate reductase activities in roots among the four populations of P. vittata and that the higher arsenate reductase activities were recorded in the nonmetallicolous populations (110 nkat mg⁻¹ protein for ZD, 160 nkat mg⁻¹ protein for NN) compared with the metallicolous populations (62.9 nkat mg⁻¹ protein for SG, 78.1 nkat mg⁻¹ protein for GY). Root exudates from the nonmetallicolous population (NN) and the metallicolous population (GY) of P. vittata contained similar compositions of organic acids including oxalic, malic, and succinic acids, of which oxalate were dominant (> 67%). The NN population exuded 4.23 times more oxalate than the SG population. Root exudates from the NN population mobilized significantly (p < 0.05) more As from As-contaminated soils than those from the SG population, of which oxalate had the most effective in As mobilization.
Conclusions: The present study suggests that higher arsenate reductase activities and oxalate exudation in the nonmetallicolous populations may play an important role in increasing their efficiency in phytoremediation of As-contaminated soils. Copyright © 2018 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.