Germination and early development of Brassica napus and Brachypodium distachyon growth with Zn, Cr (VI), As (V) or Cd: preliminary results.

Phytoremediation could reduce heavy metal bioavailability in soils and obtain renewable energy from lands useless. Some fast-growing, high biomass crop species are known to display a significant heavy metal tolerance, particularly those from the genus Brassica. These species could be phytoremediator candidates for recuperate polluted soils with heavy metals. Brachypodium distachyon has also been recently proposed as a model species to develop bioenergy. However, there are no experiments about the tolerance of this plant to metals. The present work reports data concerning the ability of Brachypodium distachyon and Brassica napus seeds to germinate and grow in media containing different doses of Cd, Cr, As and Zn, in order to evaluate their use as energy crops in polluted sites. Biomass reduction and length decreasing were observed as consequence on increasing metal doses in both species, but the effect was different attending to metal and species. The maximum toxicity level was found in plants treated with...