Meagher Laboratory Arsenic Phytoremediation Strategies

1. Arsenic enters the plant as arsenate, probably incorrectly recognized by the plant as phosphate. This mechanism can be enhanced.

2. To fix arsenate once it is inside the plant we have enhanced reduction to arsenite and trapping in thio-peptide complexes.

3. Endogenous activities such as phosphate transporters and arsenate reduction in the plant both hinder and help our attempts to engineer plants to be used in arsenic cleanup.

4. Several other bacterial and plant encoded enzymes are being examined for their potential to enhance arsenic remediation from soil and water.

Strategies for the phytoremediation of arsenic will require enhancing the activity of several enzymes in roots, stems, and leaves of fast growing plants
1. Arsenic enters the plant as arsenate, probably incorrectly recognized by the plant as phosphate. This mechanism can be enhanced. 2. To fix arsenate once it is inside the plant we have enhanced reduction to arsenite and trapping in thio-peptide complexes. 3. Endogenous activities such as phosphate transporters and arsenate reduction in the plant both hinder and help our attempts to engineer plants to be used in arsenic cleanup. 4. Several other bacterial and plant encoded enzymes are being examined for their potential to enhance arsenic remediation from soil and water.