The moderately tolerant mutants had smaller and thicker leaves than the wild type. Currently, Yang's studies are under way to understand the mechanisms responsible for storing or excluding nickel in Arabidopsis . Ha, a molecular geneticist, is using the mutants to find the genes involved. Yang also tested wheat, corn, cabbage, white clover, and ryegrass for their abilities to store or exclude cadmium, zinc, and nickel. She found that ryegrass accumulated the least amounts of cadmium in its shoots but is an accumulator of nickel.
White clover is a nickel excluder.
We need new, innovative methods to solve some of our worst pollution problems. The concept of manipulating plant genes that regulate toxic metal uptake is cutting-edge research. This is part of ARS' larger effort to maintain a productive agricultural environment that will sustain American agriculture indefinitely. This page was last modified by Phillip Barak , Univ. of Wisconsin, on 7 Nov 1996. All rights reserved.