High cadmium pollution risk on vegetable amaranth and a selection for pollution-safe cultivars to lower the risk

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out by growing 29 different genotypes (Amaranthus spp.) of vegetable amaranth under low- (0.12 mg·kg^-1) and middle- (0.40 mg·kg^-1) cadmium (Cd) exposure. The result showed that amaranth was vulnerable to cadmium (Cd) contamination in soil. Variations of Cd concentrations in both roots and edible parts among genotypes were significant (P<0.001) in both treatments. Cd concentrations in edible parts of the tested genotypes grown under low- and middle-Cd levels were significantly correlated (p<0.01), implying that Cd-accumulating property of amaranth is genotype-dependent. Differences in Cd chemical forms between cv. Nanxingdayemashixian (cv. Nan), a selected typical pollution-safe cultivar (Cd-PSC), and cv. Pennongjianyexian (cv. Pen), a selected typical non-Cd-PSC, under different Cd exposure conditions were compared. It was found that the alternation of Cd in F_NaCl (Cd form extracted by 1 mol·L^-1 NaCl) may be a key factor in regulating Cd accumulation of different amaranth genotypes and that the protein-binding Cd is considered to be associated with Cd translocation. The results indicated that amaranth is capable of enduring high level of Cd pollution when grown as vegetable crop, and accordingly, consuming vegetable amaranth would bring high health risk. Therefore, adopting Cd-PSC strategy would help reducing the risk of Cd pollution in amaranth. In this study, cv. Nan was identified as a Cd-PSC and recommended to be applied production practice.

Keywords

Amaranth / Cadmium (Cd) / Cd accumulation / pollution-safe cultivar (PSC) / Cd chemical forms / health risk

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20877104 and 21277178) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong, China(No. 021686); State Key Project for River Environment Protection of China (Nos. 2009ZX07211-022-3) and the Research Program of Heshan County, Guangdong, China.

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