Genetic effects of arsenic and heavy metals pollutants on Curculigo latifolia (Lumbah)

Abstract

Understanding plant response to chemical pollution is important for the management of a healthy ecosystem. Levels of arsenic and heavy metals and their genetic effects on Curculigo latifolia (Lumbah) growing in the Mamut River riparian zone were evaluated. Curculigo latifolia from Mamut demonstrated significantly higher levels of As, Cd, Cu and Zn compared to the same plant specimens from control site at Kipungit (p<0.05). Inverse Sequence-Tagged Repeat (ISTR) was used for estimating the genetic relatedness between C. latifolia accessions in Mamut and Kipungit. Genetic identity values (J) between Kipungit and Mamut accessions was 0.638 indicated that Mamut and Kipungit accessions were closely related. Shannon's diversity index for Mamut was 0.166 and for Kipungit it was 0.202, respectively indicating that Kipungit accessions were significantly more diverse than Mamut accessions (p<0.05). Partial MT gene was sequenced for C. latifolia from Mamut and Kipungit accessions. Average number of synonymous (dS) and non-synonymous (dN) substitutions per site in Mamut accessions was 0.31 and 0.22, respectively. These values are greater than the average number of dS (0.11) and dN (0.14) in the Kipungit accessions. The ratio of dS/dN in Mamut accessions was >1 indicating selection against most of amino acid changes and the high number of dN in Mamut accessions may indicate a specific role of MT gene in adaptation to the environmental stress caused by arsenic and heavy metals. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information.