ID: 613 / 93

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: METAL HYPERACCUMULATORS: NEW ADVANCES ON A BOTANICAL CURIOSITY

Abstract: Metal hyperaccumulators are plants capable of take up and actively store extremely high concentrations of metals in their shoots. Although the first references to hyperaccumulators date from late XIXth century, the 1976 paper by Jaffré et al. reporting nickel concentrations higher than 25% in the latex of Pycnandra acuminata is the foundation of this field of research. Since then, more than 700 hyperaccumulator plant species have been identified globally. Several hypotheses on the evolutionary significance of hyperaccumulation have been tested and some mechanisms underlying this extreme trait has been identified. Moreover, recent technical advances, such as the use of portable XRF devices or -omic tools, have opened new possibilites to understand the diversity, ecology and physiology of hyperaccumulators. In this symposium we bring together researchers who, using different approaches, focus on metal hyperaccumulating plants. Contributions reporting recent advances in taxonomy and evolution, (eco)physiology, molecular biology/genetics and/or discovery of new hyperaccumulators are welcomed.

Speaker 1: Béatrice Gervais-Bergeron, PhD student, Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Université de Montréal, 4101 Sherbrooke East, Montréal, Québec, H1X 2B2, Canada, email: beatrice.gervais-bergeron@umontreal.ca Tentative talk title: Trace element hyperaccumulator plant traits: identifying common plant functions and strategies.

Speaker 2: Dr. Sylvain Merlot, Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales, UMR 5546 UPS/CNRS/Toulouse INP, 31320 Auzeville-Tolosane, France, email: sylvain.merlot@univ-tlse3.fr Tentative talk title: Molecular mechanisms and diversity in nickel hyperaccumulation.

Speaker 3: Dr. Sandrine Isnard, UMR AMAP, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, Montpellier, France. sandrine.isnard@ird.fr. Tentative talk title:Synchrotron elemental imaging for elucidating nickel distribution tropical hyperaccumulator plant species from New Caledonia.

Topics (Up to three): (Eco)Physiology

Topic 2: Comparative genomics /transcriptomics

Topic 3: Systematics

Justification: Metal hyperaccumulators are a tiny fraction of global plant biodiversity, but they have attracted a huge interest from scientific community either to understand the mechanisms of metal homeostasis in plants, or to use them as tools for the economic recovery of valuable metals (i.e. agromining). Therefore, this is a subject of broad interest that can bridge several of the IBC topics, namely Comparative Genomics / Transcriptomics, (Eco)Physiology, and Systematics and taxonomy (among others). We propose two female and one male potential speakers (a PhD candidate and two senior researchers) from Canada and Europe with very diverse approaches to hyperaccumulator research.