Cellular distribution of arsenic and other elements in hyperaccumulator Pteris nervosa and their relations to arsenic accumulation

Synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (SRXRF) was used to study the cellular distributions of arsenic and other elements in root, petiole, pinna of a newly discovered arsenic hyperaccumulator, Pteris nervosa. It was shown that there was a trend in P. nervosa to transport arsenic from cortex tissue to vascular tissue in root, and keep arsenic in vascular during transportation in petiole, and transport arsenic from vascular tissue to adaxial cortex tissues in midrib of pinnae. More arsenic was accumulated in mesophyll than in epidermis in pinnae. The distributions of some elements, such as K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, in petiole, midrib and pinna were similar to that of arsenic, indicating that those cations might cooperate with arsenic in those transportation processes; whereas the distributions of Cl and Br in pinna were the reverse of that of arsenic, indicating that those anions might compete with arsenic in pinna of P. nervosa