Radioanalytical approach for the quantification of cadmium in cellular compartments

The tolerance of plants to heavy metals such as cadmium is influenced not only by the amount of metal intake by the plant, but also by its allocation in individual parts of the plant or in cells. For subcellular detection and quantification of the amount of cadmium, for example, atomic absorption spectrometry can be used, but it requires a large amount of biomaterial (hundreds of mg of dry matter). Based on it, the authors optimized a radioanalytical method that will allow studying the amount of cadmium in individual cellular compartments of tissues from 1-3 plants of an early developmental stage (tens of mg of fresh weight). In the wheat model, after centrifugation tissue fractionation, the authors analyzed the subcellular accumulation of cadmium in the roots using gamma spectrometry. The results showed a good correlation with some physiological and biochemical indicators of sensitivity or tolerance of wheat to cadmium toxicity. (authors)