Abstract - Induction of in vitro roots cultures of Thypha latifolia and Scirpus americanus and study of their capacity to remove heavy metals

Induction of in vitro roots cultures of Thypha latifolia and Scirpus americanus and study of their capacity to remove heavy metals

María del Socorro Santos-Díaz*
Centro de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado
Facultad de Ciencias Químicas
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
Manuel Nava 6, San Luis Potosí
CP 78210, México
Tel: 444 8262440
Fax: 444 8262372
E-mail: ssantos@uaslp.mx

María del Carmen Barrón-Cruz
Centro de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado
Facultad de Ciencias Químicas
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
Manuel Nava 6, San Luis Potosí
CP 78210, México
Tel: 444 8262440
Fax: 444 8262372

María Catalina Alfaro-De la Torre
Centro de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado
Facultad de Ciencias Químicas
Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
Manuel Nava 6, San Luis Potosí
CP 78210, México
Tel: 444 8262440
Fax: 444 8262372

*Corresponding author

Financial support: We are grateful to SHIGO-CONACYT (2002-060-205) for financial support and for the scholarship to MCBC (2002-020605).

Keywords: heavy metals, in vitro root cultures, phytoremediation, Scirpus americanus, Thypha latifolia.

We have established the conditions to obtain in vitro root cultures of Thypha latifolia and Scirpus americanus and have investigated their capacity to remove Pb(II), Mn(II) and Cr(III) from the culture medium. The best conditions for the in vitro culture growth were: an inoculum of 0.2 g of T. latifolia roots and 0.05 g of S. americanus roots (fresh weight), Murashige-Skoog medium and 2 mg L^-1of indolacetic acid. The T. latifolia and S. americanus root cultures were cultivated onto media containing Cr (15 µg L^-1), Pb (60 µg L^-1) or Mn (1.8 mg L^-1). Both species were able to remove Pb and Cr near to 100% and 71-100% of Mn from the medium solution during the 6-8 days of experimentation. According to metal concentrations removed from the medium containing the growing root mass, the in vitro root culture of S. americanus can be considered as an accumulator for Pb (157.73 µg g^-1), Cr (55.6 µg g^-1) and Mn (5000 µg g^-1).