Transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling to unravel sex-dependent mechanisms and the role of exogenous glutathione in Marchantia polymorpha under cadmium stress.
Yang X, Zhang J, Zhan L, Yi L, Guo C
Phytoremediation
Choosing the right plants to clean up cadmium-contaminated soil in your neighborhood could soon depend on whether you plant male or female specimens — and this research shows females absorb significantly more of the toxic metal.
Scientists studied a small ancient plant called liverwort — one of the earliest land plants — to understand how male and female plants handle cadmium, a toxic heavy metal from industrial pollution. They found that female plants soak up nearly twice as much cadmium as males, but male plants show more signs of stress and damage. When they gave the plants a natural protective molecule called glutathione, both sexes handled the cadmium better.
Key Findings
Female Marchantia polymorpha accumulated significantly more cadmium (82.97 ± 0.75 mg/kg) than male plants, indicating strong sex-dependent differences in metal uptake.
Despite lower cadmium accumulation, male plants exhibited greater physiological and morphological damage under cadmium stress, suggesting sex-specific tolerance mechanisms.
Exogenous application of glutathione (GSH) provided measurable remedial effects for both sexes, reducing cadmium-induced stress through transcriptomic and metabolomic pathway changes.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Male and female liverworts respond differently to toxic cadmium contamination, with females absorbing more of the metal but males suffering greater damage. Adding glutathione (a natural antioxidant) from outside the plant helped reduce this stress in both sexes.
Abstract Preview
Cadmium (Cd) contamination poses a persistent threat to plant fitness and ecosystem stability, yet the molecular basis of sex-dependent Cd tolerance in dioecious plants remains unclear. In this stu...
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Liverworts are a group of non-vascular land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta. They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information. The division name ...