BHU researchers find heavy metal toxicity affects photosynthesis process

NEW DELHI: The researchers at the department of botany at Banaras Hindu University find that high concentration of heavy metal called Cadmium heavily impacts the photosynthesis process of plants and affects productivity.

The research team claims that in the longer run this can lead to concerns of food security that has already escalated by climate change situations in the current time. BHU, department of botany, assistant professor, Yogesh Mishra along with PhD students, Akanksha Srivastava and Subhankar Biswas publish their findings in journal BBA-Proteins and Proteomics.

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In a first, the team also observed that 'LexA protein' regulates photosynthetic responses by regulating related key photosynthetic genes. The findings by BHU researcher is expected to be useful in further research in order to address the challenges of heavy metal toxicity in the ecosystem.

According to the BHU statement, the findings could also be used to develop stress tolerant crops with improved photosynthesis efficiency, eventually helping in dealing with the question of food security. Previous research funded by the government of India, department of atomic energy was carried as a joint effort by BHU and Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) Research papers were published in journals named Experimental Botany in 2022 and Algal Research in 2021.

Speaking about the research, Yogesh Mishra said: "Since photosynthesis is one of the vital processes that is affected by heavy metal stress, our findings are promising for the development of recombinant cyanobacteria with improved photosynthetic efficiency and heavy metal tolerance capacity.”