Heavy metal stress in crop plants: A review

Abstract

The environment has been harmed by a plethora of human activities such as mining, contemporary farming methods, and industrialization. All of these variables raise the accumulation of heavy metals in air, soil, and water, Heavy metal pollution of soil may lead to a variety of environmental issues, as well as harmful effects on both plants and animals. In the ecosystem, enormous absorption and bio - magnification of heavy metals has become a problem for all living creatures, including plants. Intoxicating amounts of heavy metals have the tendency to communicate with numerous essential cellular macromolecules such as nuclear proteins and DNA, resulting in an over-abundance of reactive oxygen species. Defoliation and peroxidation as well as enzyme inactivation would be severe morphological, metabolic, and physiological abnormalities in plants. Over this, plants have developed many ways to combat heavy metal toxicity. This review considers our current understanding of the detrimental effects of different heavy metals as well as plant responses to these stresses.