Lead Toxicity and Tolerance in Plants: Insights from Omics Studies

Lead (Pb) is a nonessential metal for plants and the second most toxic heavy metal that is contaminating the environment through both natural processes and anthropogenic activities. As compared to other metals, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying Pb toxicity and tolerance in plants and investigating these aspects can facilitate a deeper understanding of the reason behind the drastic effect of Pb stress. Also, it can help to find novel, economical, and efficient ways to solve the Pb contamination problem by plants themselves. Moreover, this information can be highly important for developing new transgenic plants for phytoremediation goals by manipulating the candidate markers using genetic engineering. Thus, this chapter reviews the omics research on plants’ response to Pb exposure and intends to integrate the current knowledge regarding Pb toxicity and tolerance mechanism in plants revealed by omics approaches.