Identification of pakchoi cultivars with low cadmium accumulation and soil factors that affect their cadmium uptake and translocation

Abstract

The selection and use of low-Cd-accumulating cultivar (LCAC) has been proposed as one of the promising approaches in minimizing the entry of Cd in the human food chain. This study suggests a screening criterion of LCACs focusing on food safety. Pot culture and plot experiments were conducted to screen out LCACs from 35 pakchoi cultivars and to identify the crucial soil factors that affect Cd accumulation in LCACs. Results of the pot culture experiment showed that shoot Cd concentrations under the three Cd treatments significantly varied across cultivars. Two cultivars, Hualv 2 and Huajun 2, were identified as LCACs because their shoot Cd concentrations were lower than 0.2 mg·kg^-1 under low Cd treatment and high Cd exposure did not affect the biomass of their shoots. The plot experiment further confirmed the consistency and genotypic stability of the low-Cd-accumulating traits of the two LCACs under various soil conditions. Results also showed that soil phosphorus availability was the most important soil factor in the Cd accumulation of pakchoi, which related negatively not only to Cd uptake by root but also to Cd translocation from root to shoot. The total Cd accumulation and translocation rates were lower in the LCACs than in the high-Cd cultivar, suggesting that Cd accumulation in different cultivars is associated with the Cd uptake by root as well as translocation from root to shoot. This study proves the feasibility of the application of the LCAC strategy in pakchoi cultivation to cope with Cd contamination in agricultural soils.

Keywords

pakchoi (Brassica chinensis L.) / cadmium contamination / low-cadmium-accumulating cultivar (LCAC) / genotype variation / soil factor / translocation

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21177068, 40901154 and 21107056), Program for Distinguishing Scholar and Innovative Team of Ministry of Agriculture (2012-jcrc-xym), Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No. 10JCYBJC06300), and Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (No. 201203045).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg