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Evidence For Exocellular Arsenic In Fronds Of Pteris Vittata, Rupali Datta, Padmini Das, Ryan Tappero, Pravin Punamiya, Evert Elzinga, Shivendra Sahi, Huan Feng, Jeffrey Kiiskila, Dibyendu Sarkar

Huan Feng

The arsenic (As) hyperaccumulating fern species Pteris vittata (PV) is capable of accumulating large quantities of As in its aboveground tissues. Transformation to AsIII and vacuolar sequestration is believed to be the As detoxification mechanism in PV. Here we present evidence for a preponderance of exocellular As in fronds of Pteris vittata despite numerous reports of a tolerance mechanism involving intracellular compartmentalization. Results of an extraction experiment show that 43–71% of the As extruded out of the fronds of PV grown in 0.67, 3.3 and 6.7mM AsV. SEM-EDX analysis showed that As was localized largely on the lower pinna surface, …