Progress in studying physiology and molecular biology of arsenic in plants—Uptake, translocation and tolerance in the soilrhizosphereplant system

Arsenic can cause cancer in humans, but also can be used as an anticancer medicine. Besides the harmful effects of arsenic to plants, arsenic can be taken up and accumulated in plants and thus enters animal and human bodies through food chain. The episodes of arsenic contamination and toxicity happened in India, Bangladesh and China brought scientists to study the mechanisms of arsenic absorption, translocation in plants. This article reviews the recent progresses on behaviors of arsenic in soil, rhizosphere and plant, especially focuses on physiological and molecular processes of arsenic acquisition, translocation in plants, as well as on the tolerant mechanisms of microbial organisms and plants to arsenic. The possible applications of arsenic tolerant mechanisms in crops and in cleaning of the contaminated environment are discussed.