In the last two decades, the accumulation of heavy metal in crop grains has become the study hotspot. In this study, 19 representative elite maize inbred lines and 3 hybrid varieties were investigated at the seedling stage, which can accumulate Pb and Cd in the stems and leaves, respectively. The results demonstrated that significant differences are among inbred lines for accumulation of heavy ...

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides composed of α-d-glucose units linked by α-(1,4)-glucosidic bonds. α-CD, β-CD and γ-CD contain 6, 7 or 8 d-glucose units, respectively. CDs can bind to the active site pancreatic α-amylase competitively inhibit enzyme. Adding 0.100 mg CD/mg native wheat starch substantially reduces in vitro activity is a more potent inhibitor than α-CD γ-CD. 0.025,...

Kinetics of two molecular forms of K-dependent citrate dehydrase in maize (Zea mays L.) are reported. The isozymes, designated CD I and CD II, were found to be compartmented in mitochondria and cytosol, respectively.CD I exhibited hyperbolic kinetics with respect to both citrate and potassium with K(m) 2.3 and 12 millimolar, respectively. Maximum velocity was 0.38 micromole of trans-aconitic ac...

The possibility of utilizing plants for soil decon­ tamination of heavy metals received more and more interest in recent years. Plants useful for phytoremediation should be characterized by a high biomass production and by accumulation of high amounts of metals in easily harvested shoots (Blaylock et al., 1997). These conditions are ful­ filled by some cultivars of Indian mustard (Bras­ sica ju...

Management of heavy metal contamination requires accurate information about the distribution of bioavailable fractions, and about exchange between the solid and solution phases. In this study, we employed diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) and traditional chemical extraction methods (soil solution, HOAc, EDTA, CaCl₂, and NaOAc) to determine the Cd bioavailability in Cd-contaminated soil wi...

Our study investigated the accumulation of chromium, nickel, lead and cadmium by maize (Zea mays L.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), willow (Salix x smithiana Willd.), and poplar (Populus nigra L. x P. maximowiczii), and the realtionship between the contaminants in soil and in plants. The experiment was performed in contaminated soil (former waste incineration plant) at the Hradec Králové (C...

The effects of the different concentrations of Cd on accumulation of four cultivars of maize (Zea mays L.) viz., Nongda No. 108, Liyu No. 6, Shendan No. 10 and Tangkang No. 5, were investigated using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The Cd accumulation in the roots and shoots and the interactions among Mn, Fe and Cu were also analyzed in the present study. The ...

Supply of cadmium chloride (0.5 mM) inhibited chlorophyll formation in greening maize leaf segments, while lower concentration of Cd (0.01 mM) slightly enhanced it. Inclusion of 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG, 0.1-10 mM) in the incubation mixture increased chlorophyll content in the absence as well as presence of Cd. Substantial inhibition of chlorophyll formation by Cd was observed at longer treatment b...

Cd from roots of maize was partitioned in seedlings exposed to 3 microM CdSO4 for 1 to 7 d. Most of the root Cd (92-94%) was buffer soluble and provided the classical metal-induced cysteine-rich, high-molecular-weight Cd-binding complex. This complex, however, bound only part of the Cd within the roots, from 19% after 1 d of exposure to 59% by d 7. Three families of peptides formed the Cd-bindi...