Recent advances in metabolomics for studying heavy metal stress in plants

Heavy metals (HMs) are affected by natural and human activities and contaminate the soil environment, endanger plant growth and pose a serious threat to the ecosystem. HMs interfere with plant metabolism and some protein activities and cause oxygen stress. Plants combat excess HMs in the environment through a complex array of biological activities (such as antioxidant mechanisms, chelation, and regionalization of HM ions). Metabolomics is an emerging technique utilized for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of all low-molecular-weight metabolites that is now widely used in toxicology, disease diagnosis, plant research and other fields and has become an important component of systems biology. This paper reviews the progress and current status of metabolomics research on plants under HM stress and introduces plant detoxification and phytoremediation mechanisms. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Heavy metals are pollutants that can harm plant growth and ecosystems, affected by both natural and human activities. Plants have developed complex biological mechanisms to combat excess heavy metals in their environment. Metabolomics is a useful technique for studying the effects of heavy metal stress on plants.