Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most harmful heavy metals in the environment, negatively impacting plant growth and development. However, phytoremediation which is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective technique can be used to treat Cd contaminated environments. It effectively removes Cd from polluted soil and water through processes, such as phytoextraction, phytostabilization, phytostimulation, phytofiltration, and phytotransformation. Numerous research has shown evidences that biological, physical, chemical, agronomic, and genetic methods are being utilized to improve phytoremediation. A special group of plants known as hyperaccumulator plants further enhance Cd removal, turning polluted areas into productive land. These plants accumulate Cd in root cell vacuoles and aerial parts. Despite the morphological and genetic variations, different plant species remediate Cd at different rates using either one or multiple mechanisms. To improve the effectiveness of phytoremediation, it is essential to thoroughly understand the mechanisms that control the accumulation and persistence of Cd in plants, including absorption, translocation, and elimination processes. However, what missing in understanding is in depth of idea on how the limitations of phytoremediation can be overcome. The limitations of phytoremediation can be addressed through various strategies, including natural and chemical amendments, genetic engineering, and natural microbial stimulation, broadly categorized into soil amelioration and plant capacity enhancement approaches. This review presents a concise overview of the latest research on various plants utilized in Cd phytoremediation and the different methods employed to enhance this process. Moreover, this review also underscores the creditability of phytoremediation technique to remediate Cd pollution as it offers a promising approach for eliminating Cd from contaminated sites and restoring their productivity. Additionally, we recommend directing future research toward enhancing the biochemical capabilities of plants for remediation purposes, elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the damage caused by Cd in plants, and understanding the fundamental principles regulating the enrichment of Cd in plants.

The study examines the toxicity of cadmium (Cd), microplastics (MPs) and their combined pollution on wheat plants, focusing on Cd accumulation and alterations to soil physical and chemical properties. To provide guidance for understanding the physiological and ecological responses of wheat to Cd and MPs contamination. Using a soil pot experiment, the individual and combined impacts of Cd (0 mg kg(-)(1) and 5 mg kg(-)(1)) and polyvinyl chloride microplastics (PVC-MPs) (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 5.0%) on various aspects of wheat growth were assessed. Partial least square (PLS) model was employed to analyze the quantitative relationship between wheat growth indicators and various physicochemical parameters. Results revealed that the PVC-MPs significantly suppressed wheat growth parameters, photosynthetic efficiency, and chlorophyll content. As the level of contamination increased, the damage to wheat chloroplasts became more severe, leaf thickness reduced, and canopy temperatures rose. Conversely, root morphology parameters and Cd accumulation in wheat plants exhibited a declining trend. Moreover, soil fertility indicators and the activities of soil urease, acid phosphatase and dehydrogenase increased in correlation with higher concentrations of PVC-MPs. The PLS model identified stomatal conductance as the critical controlling factor influencing wheat growth under the combined stress of PVC-MPs and Cd. Overall, co-occurring Cd and PVC-MPs can change wheat plant performance and soil traits. These findings provide crucial insights into the physiological and ecological impacts of Cd and microplastic co-pollution in wheat-soil systems.

Long-term exposure to Cd through contaminated food can lead to multiple adverse health effects on humans. Although previous studies have covered global food Cd concentrations and dietary Cd exposures across different populations, there are increasing concerns regarding the adequacy of current food Cd safety standards to protect populations from adverse health effects. Moreover, incorporation of Cd relative bioavailability (Cd-RBA) in foods improves the accuracy of health risk assessment. However, factors influencing food Cd-RBA have not been systematically discussed, thereby hindering its application in risk assessment. This review aims to provide an overview of Cd contents in foods, discuss concerns regarding international food Cd concentration standards, explore factors influencing food Cd bioavailability, and highlight the opportunities and challenges in refining differences between dietary Cd intakes and body burdens. Our findings suggest that current safety standards may be insufficient to protect human health, as they primarily focus on kidney damage as the protective endpoint and fail to account for global and regional variations in food consumption patterns and temporal changes in dietary habits over time. Factors such as crop cultivars and food compositions greatly influence food Cd-RBA. To improve the accuracy of Cd health risk assessment, future studies should incorporate food Cd-RBA, sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional status, and incidental Cd exposure. This review highlights new insights into food Cd safety standards and Cd bioavailability, identifies critical knowledge gaps, and offers recommendations for refining health risk assessments. This information is essential to inform future bioavailability investigations, health risk assessment, and safety standard development.

Determining and characterising locations vulnerable to flooding can help in reducing damage and the number of fatalities. During the monsoon season, East India's Subarnarekha River frequently floods to a significant degree. In current work, we suggest a unique hybrid strategy for preparing the entire catchment's Flood Susceptibility Mapping (FSM). The study area's FSM was conducted by considering 10 flood conditioning factors utilising the Best-Worst Method (BWM) and a multi-parametric Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as per expert knowledge. Meanwhile, the proposed strategy incorporates a Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) for examining causal linkages and dependencies between different elements affecting the flooding process. Several statistical matrices were used to compare the suggested strategy of BWM and AHP. Based on our findings, we concluded that the integration of DEMATEL with AHP and BWM (ID BWM, ID AHP) was more effective than alternative strategies. The findings show that out of 10 flood conditioning factors, slope, elevation, distance from the river, drainage density, Topographic wetness Index (TWI), Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), precipitation, soil texture, and curvature, factors that have the biggest effects on the local flooding phenomenon are elevation, slope, precipitation, and distance from the river. For validating the efficacy of the flood susceptibility map, Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC-ROC) was adopted and demonstrated, showing a pretty high accuracy of (0.92 or 92% and 0.94 or 94%) for ID AHP and ID BWM, respectively. Our research findings provide a highly affordable and useful answer to the flooding problems of basin Subarnarekha.

To address the issue of poor phytoremediation in Cd-contaminated saline soil caused by the biotoxicity of Cdsalinity, we constructed a symbiotic system of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum, and systematically elucidated the response strategies of Solanum nigrum and the enhancement mechanism of AMF for plant tolerance through cytological, physiological, and transcriptomic methods. The findings showed that Cd-salinity stress had synergistic aggravated Cd/Na enrichment, ultrastructural damage, photosynthetic inhibition, water loss, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in plants. In response to the heterogeneity of Cd/salinity stress, AMF smartly regulated the Cd/salinity tolerance of host plants: AMF decreased intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) under Cd stress to alleviate non-stomatal limitation induced by Cd, but increased Ci under salinity stress to alleviate the stomatal limitation induced by salinity; the role of AMF in strengthening the osmoregulation system was more prominent under salinity stress, thereby alleviated the more severe osmotic imbalance induced by salinity. AMF also enhanced signal transduction to consolidate resistance defense, upregulated antioxidant genes to activate antioxidant enzymes, and strengthened the AsAGSH cycle to mitigate oxidative damage. The enhancement of tolerance improved plant growth and Cd enrichment. Under high Cd-high salinity combined stress, Cd concentrations in shoots and roots increased by 14.28 % and 38.85 %, respectively, and the biomass also increased by over 30.00 % after AMF inoculation. In summary, inoculation with AMF serves as an effective and sustainable phytoremediation enhancement strategy that improves the host plants' stress resistance through multiple pathways, thereby increasing the phytoremediation potential.

In this study, the mitigating effects of CaO NPs obtained from pomegranate extract via environmentally friendly green synthesis on CdCl2 stress in two varieties (Yolboyu and Kirac) of Turkish Kavilca wheat (Triticum dicoccum Schrank) under in vitro callus culture conditions were investigated. The calluses developed from embryos of both wheat varieties were exposed to either CaO NPs alone (1 and 2 mg/L), CdCl2 alone (1 or 10 mM) or the different combinations of these two compounds in MS medium for 4 weeks. Changes in the expressions of two genes (Traes_5BL_9A790E8CF and Traes_6BL_986D595B9) known to be involved in wheat's response to CdCl2 stress were analyzed by qRT-PCR. Additionally, certain physiological parameters, such as lipid peroxidation (LPO), H2O2, proline and soluble sugar content, and SEM-EDX analysis were used to assess the response of calluses to the applications. The CaO NPs treatments alone generally upregulated the expression of the 5BL and 6BL genes, while the CdCl2 applications decreased their expression in both cultivars. The CaO NPs reduced the proline content in both cultivars compared to the control. Co-treatment with CdCl2 and CaO NPs increased the sugar content and decreased the MDA content, but did not cause a significant change in the H2O2 content. SEM analysis showed that when CdCl2 and CaO NPs were applied to calluses together, the membranous and mucilaginous spherical structures were regained. The application of CaO NPs reduces the amount of cellular damage caused by CdCl2 stress and improves gene expressions.

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal contaminant found in soil and water due to human activities such as mining and industrial discharge. Cd can accumulate in the body, leading to various health risks such as organ injuries, osteoporosis, renal dysfunction, Type 2 diabetes (T2DM), reproductive diseases, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. The gut is particularly sensitive to Cd toxicity as it acts as the primary barrier against orally ingested Cd. Even at low concentrations, Cd can cause oxidative stress, inflammation, and intestinal bleeding. Cd also disrupts the gut microbiota, affecting its structure, taxonomic composition, and metabolic functions. Cd exposure alters the structure of the gut microbial community, reducing diversity and upregulating certain phyla and genera. This disturbance can lead to physiological and metabolic imbalances, including disruptions in energy homeostasis, amino acid, lipid, nucleotide, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFAs) metabolism. The effects of Cd on the gut microbiota depend on the duration of exposure, the dose of Cd, and can vary based on sex and age. Cd-induced gut dysbiosis has been linked to various diseases, including diabetes, adiposity, atherosclerosis, liver damage, infections, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Interventions targeting the gut microbiota, such as probiotics, specific diets, melatonin, selenium, vitamin D3, and certain compounds, have shown potential in reducing the health risks associated with Cd exposure. However, combined exposure to Cd and other toxicants, such as microplastics (MPs), heavy metals, and antibiotics, can amplify the toxicity and dysbiosis in the gut microbiota.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the highly toxic heavy metals that restricts plant growth, affects crop yields, and triggers food crises. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is frequently used solvent in biological studies, and its potential application in resistance to Cd toxicity in plants and animals has not been reported. Here, low concentrations of DMSO alone were demonstrated to increase the biomass of pak choi seedlings; more importantly, under Cd stress conditions, DMSO was shown to reduce Cd accumulation, and thereby alleviate Cd-induced damages. Specifically, DMSO could enhance plant defense mechanisms against Cd stress by strengthening the activities of endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging enzymatic or non-enzymatic antioxidants, regulating the expression of key stress-responsive genes, as well as activating autophagy and apoptosis protection in root cells, thereby scavenging excessive ROS, restoring integration of cell membranes, and conferring tolerance to Cdinduced phytotoxicity. Our results showed that DMSO could play a vital role in mitigating Cd-induced oxidative damage by activating the protective mechanisms generated by the synergistic effects of both autophagy and antioxidants. These findings will help to formulate strategies to mitigate Cd contamination and to ensure the safety of cabbage production, an important vegetable source.

Cadmium (Cd) is a widespread and strongly toxic environmental pollutant. In this study, the interaction between Cd and essential nutritional metals, such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), was investigated in banana plants (Musa spp. cultivar Grand Nain), cultured in vitro, using Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and physiological analysis. Plantlets were treated in vitro with Fe and Zn (200 and 500 mg/L) under 500 mg/L Cd exposure. The results showed that Cd toxicity increased Cd uptake and raised % of damage. However, Fe and Zn addition ameliorated the negative impact of Cd stress by reducing Cd and enhancing Fe, Zn, P, and K contents. The FT-IR analysis showed alterations within the bands correlated to the foremost macromolecules in plants under Cd stress and its interactions with Fe or Zn. The peaks of some functional groups at 3381.7 cm-1 for carbohydrates, proteins, alcohols, and phenolic compounds, 2922.02 cm-1 for lipids, 1643.97 cm-1 for amide I, 1517.46 cm-1 for amide II, 1057.63 cm-1 for cellulose and hemicellulose, and 616.94 cm-1 for aromatic compounds were negatively shifted by Cd stress. However, Fe and Zn regulated transmittance and intensity of these bands, showing improved tolerance to Cd. Moreover, Fe and Zn modulated the total antioxidants and enzymatic antioxidant activities for catalase and ascorbate peroxidase. The study concluded that the nutrition with Fe and Zn enhanced banana tolerance against Cd toxicity. It also highlighted the powerful role of FT-IR in understanding the mechanisms involved in minimizing Cd toxicity in banana shoots under Fe and Zn.

This paper has attempted to determine the weighting levels of the soil and ground motion parameters (engineering bedrock depth (EBd), average shear wave velocity (Vs30), fundamental frequency (f0), peak ground acceleration (PGA), Joyner-Boore distance (Rjb), and epicenter distance (Repi)) in reflecting the actual damage status after the 2023 Kahramanmara & scedil; earthquakes, which have a wide impact area of 11 provinces. The analytical hierarchy method (AHP), a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) process, was used to analyze these parameter data sets obtained from 44 Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of T & uuml;rkiye (AFAD) stations (Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmara & scedil;, and Osmaniye). The priority order of the parameters before the analysis was systematically collected. These parameters were categorized into soil, ground motion and earthquake source-path properties. Considering the literature, these characteristics and their combined effects were systematically weighted with AHP under five groups. According to the weighted groups in the scope of the study, the actual damage data can be determined with a minimum accuracy rate of 70% (Group 1). In comparison, the best performance evaluation was 82% (Group 5). The parameter order and weights in the actual damage data evaluation are suggested as EBd-%28, PGA-%24, Vs30-%19, Rjb-%14, f0-%10, and Repi-%5 considering the very high accuracy rate of Group 5. This suggested weighting allows the rapid and effective estimation of the damage distribution after a possible earthquake only with soil, ground motion and earthquake source-path characteristics, even in cases where reliable structure data cannot be obtained.