RESEARCH ARTICLE Potential for chromium (VI) bioremediation by the aquatic carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba L. (Lentibulariaceae)

Abstract The aquatic carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba has one of the smallest known genomes among flowering plants, and therefore, it is an excellent model organism for physiological and developmental studies. The main aim of our work was to check whether the ubiquitousU. gibbamight be useful for the phytoremediation of the highly toxic and mobile hexavalent chromium in waters. Plants were incubated for 1 week in a 50 μM (2.6 mg dm−3) Cr(VI) solution in laboratory conditions. Our results revealed that the plant ex-hibits a very high accumulation capacity for Cr. The accumu-lat ion level was higher than 780 mg kg−1 and a bioconcentration factor>300. On the other hand, the plants showed a low tolerance to the elevated Cr concentration, which was expressed in a significant decrease of the photo-system II activity. However, the most pronounced negative influence of chromate was found on the morphology and ac-tivity of the traps. Due to its high accumulation capacity, we suggest that U. gibba may be efficient in the removal of chro-mate over a short time scale. It can also provide a new molec-ular resource for studying the mechanisms of Cr(VI) detoxification