Molecular analysis and accumulations of nickel and cadmium at Alyssum Corsicum (Brassicaceae)

The purification of contaminated soil by means of physical and chemical methods have a high cost both economically and technologically. As an alternative to these methods, phytoremediation techniques that are cheaper ecologically and financially have started to be developed and used. Since they are able to accumulate nickel in concentrations that reach up to 3% of the dry leaf biomass, some types of Alyssum L. from the Brassicaceae family are a group of plants that have real ecological value. In this study, appropriate conditions preeminently having been provided, Alyssum corsicum Duby has been grown in 0,04 mM, 0,2 mM nickel and 0,1 mM cadmium concentrations. After a certain period of development, measures have been taken by X-ray floresence spectrometer (XRF) with a view to identify the quantity of metal in the leaves of Alyssum corsicum that has been harvested and dried. It has been found out that metal concentrations that have been applied to the plant and the amount of metal in the leaves of the plant have increased in direct proportion to one another. Through the isolation of total leaf protein, by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), protein profiles have been determined. Two main bands with a molecular weight of 49 kDa and 15 kDa have been obtained in the gel. In addition to this, a number of other bands between 45 kDa and 15 kDa, but showing no noticeable differences in terms of mobility and intensity have also been observed. Using random amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) method, a total of 28 primers have been tested. Ultimately, it has been determined that 14 primers have realized some sort of reproduction and 6 of these have reproduced polymorphic bands. With a comparison of bands that PCR products have formed in gels, genetic distances have been calculated and dendrograms have been obtained, using unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) method.According to the dendrogram method, the genetic approximity of the plants grown in nickel and cadmium concentrations to the control plant of A. corsicum is 0,68 and 0,64 respectively. The genetic approximity between the plant grown in the nickel concentration and in the cadmium concentration is 0,80. It has been determined that the plant grown in 0,1mM cadmium concentration is the most approximate one to the control plant and the plant grown in 0,2 mM nickel concentration is the most remote one to the control plant.