This review is on arsenic in agronomic systems, and covers processes that influence the entry of arsenic into the human food supply. The scope is from sources of arsenic (natural and anthropogenic) in soils, biogeochemical and rhizosphere processes that control arsenic speciation and availability, through to mechanisms of uptake by crop plants and potential mitigation strategies. This review makes a case for taking steps to prevent or limit crop uptake of arsenic, wherever possible, and to work toward a long-term solution to the presence of arsenic in agronomic systems. The past two decades have seen important advances in our understanding of how biogeochemical and physiological processes influence human exposure to soil arsenic, and this must now prompt an informed reconsideration and unification of regulations to protect the quality of agricultural and residential soils.

BTS family members negatively regulate the Fe deficiency response; mutants have increased Fe levels and tolerance to Fe deficiency.

This Botanical Briefing reviews the application of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF) microprobes to the plant sciences; how the technique has expanded our knowledge of metal(loid) homeostasis, and how it can be used in the future. The use of SXRF microspectroscopy and microtomography in research on metal homeostasis in plants is reviewed. The potential use of SXRF as part of the ionomics toolbox, where it is able to provide fundamental information on the way that plants control metal homeostasis, is recommended. SXRF is one of the few techniques capable of providing spatially resolved in-vivo metal abundance data on a sub-micrometre scale, without the need for chemical fixation, coating, drying or even sectioning of samples. This gives researchers the ability to uncover mechanisms of plant metal homeostasis that can potentially be obscured by the artefacts of sample preparation. Further, new generation synchrotrons with smaller beam sizes and more sensitive detection systems will allow for the imaging of metal distribution within single living plant cells. Even greater advances in our understanding of metal homeostasis in plants can be gained by overcoming some of the practical boundaries that exist in the use of SXRF analysis.

Several members of the Yellow Stripe1-Like (YSL) family of transporter proteins are able to transport metal-nicotianamine (NA) complexes. Substantial progress has been made in understanding the roles of the Arabidopsis YSLs that are most closely related to the founding member of the family, ZmYS1 (e.g., AtYSL1, AtYSL2 and AtYSL3), but there is little information concerning members of the other two well-conserved YSL clades. Here, we provide evidence that AtYSL4 and AtYSL6, which are the only genes in Arabidopsis belong to YSL Group II, are localized to vacuole membranes and to internal membranes resembling endoplasmic reticulum. Both single and double mutants for YSL4 and YSL6 were rigorously analyzed, and have surprisingly mild phenotypes, in spite of the strong and wide-ranging expression of YSL6. However, in the presence of toxic levels of Mn and Ni, plants with mutations in YSL4 and YSL6 and plants overexpressing GFP-tagged YSL6 showed growth defects, indicating a role for these transporters in heavy metal stress responses.

The ability to alter nutrient partitioning within plants cells is poorly understood. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), a family of endomembrane cation exchangers (CAXs) transports Ca²⁺ and other cations. However, experiments have not focused on how the distribution and partitioning of calcium (Ca) and other elements within seeds are altered by perturbed CAX activity. Here, we investigate Ca distribution and abundance in Arabidopsis seed from cax1 and cax3 loss-of-function lines and lines expressing deregulated CAX1 using synchrotron x-ray fluorescence microscopy. We conducted 7- to 10-μm resolution in vivo x-ray microtomography on dry mature seed and 0.2-μm resolution x-ray microscopy on embryos from lines overexpressing deregulated CAX1 (35S-sCAX1) and cax1cax3 double mutants only. Tomograms showed an increased concentration of Ca in both the seed coat and the embryo in cax1, cax3, and cax1cax3 lines compared with the wild type. High-resolution elemental images of the mutants showed that perturbed CAX activity altered Ca partitioning within cells, reducing Ca partitioning into organelles and/or increasing Ca in the cytosol and abolishing tissue-level Ca gradients. In comparison with traditional volume-averaged metal analysis, which confirmed subtle changes in seed elemental composition, the collection of spatially resolved data at varying resolutions provides insight into the impact of altered CAX activity on seed metal distribution and indicates a cell type-specific function of CAX1 and CAX3 in partitioning Ca into organelles. This work highlights a powerful technology for inferring transport function and quantifying nutrient changes.

The quality of the intrauterine environment, in which the placenta plays a critical role, affects birth outcomes and lifelong health. The effect of metal contaminants on the growth and functioning of the placenta have not been widely reported but may provide insights into how metal exposures lead to these outcomes. We examined relationships between placental concentrations of cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) and measures of placental growth and functioning (placental weight, placental efficiency (the log ratio of placental weight and birth weight), chorionic disc area and disc eccentricity) as part of the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (N = 1159). We additionally examined whether these associations were modified by placental concentrations of essential elements zinc (Zn) and selenium (Se). Associations were evaluated using generalized linear models. Multivariable-adjusted differences in placental weight were - 7.81 g (95% CI: -15.42, -2.48) with every ng/g increase in the Cd concentration of placenta (p-Value = 0.0009). Greater decrements in placental weight and efficiency associated with placental Cd were observed for females. For placentae with below median Zn and Se concentrations, decrements in placental weight were - 8.81 g (95% CI: -16.85, -0.76) and - 13.20 g (95% CI: -20.70, -5.70) respectively. The Cd concentration of placenta was also associated with reductions in placental efficiency both overall, and in Zn- and Se-stratified models. No appreciable differences were observed with other elements (As, Hg or Pb) and with other placental measures (chorionic disc area and disc eccentricity). In structural equation models, placental weight was a mediator in the relation between placental Cd concentration and reduced birth weight. Our findings suggest a role of interacting essential and contaminant elements on birth weight that may be mediated by changes in the growth and function of the placenta.