Investigation of anatomic changes and tolerance mechanisms induced by various heavy metal ions in Vicia faba L.

With the developing technology, the amount of heavy metals in nature is increasing day by day and it is a great threat for living things. Plants have the ability to absorb heavy metals in trace amounts according to their development. When exposed to too much heavy metal, plants develop a variety of tolerance mechanisms to protect themselves. In this study, the anatomical damages caused by nickel and copper metals in Vicia faba L. plant and the tolerance mechanisms in the plant were investigated. Vicia faba seeds were divided into 3 groups to determine toxicity. The 1st group was treated in tap water and the seeds of the 2nd group were germinated in 25 ppm CuSO4 solution and the 3rd group seeds germinated in the 25 ppm NiCl2 solution for 72 hours. As a result of experimental processes, anatomical damage was not observed in seeds treated with tap water, while Vicia faba L. plants exposed to Cu and Ni metal ions had different rates of anatomical damages such as thickening of cortex cell wall, non-obvious conduction tissue, substance accumulation in cortex cells, micronucleus and flattened cell nucleus. It was observed that the toxicity and the anatomical damages in seeds exposed to Ni ions were much higher than the group exposed to Cu ions.