Physiological mechanism of hypertolerance of cadmium in Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue: Chemical forms and tissue distribution

• Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue can tolerate and accumulated the high Cd.
• The Cd hypertolerance of Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue involve in the detoxification by forming the undissolved Cd phosphates in the leaves.
• The superior Cd tolerance of tall fescue to Kentucky bluegrass is related to the less Cd uploaded into the stele of roots and the less Cd transported to leaves.

Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) are hypertolerant grasses to soil cadmium contamination. Little information is available on their tolerance mechanism. A sand culture and a hydroponic culture experiment were designed to investigate the Cd chemical form changes and its translocation in different tissues. The results showed that Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue can tolerate 50–200 mg kg−1 of soil Cd stresses and accumulate as high as 4275 and 2559 mg Cd kg−1 DW, respectively, in their shoots without the loss of shoot biomass. Their Cd hypertolerance was correlated with an increase of the undissolved Cd phosphates in the leaves in both grass species, as determined by sequential solvent extraction procedures. The superior Cd tolerance of tall fescue to Kentucky bluegrass was associated with less Cd translocation into the stele of roots and less Cd transported to leaves. The pectate- and protein-integrated Cd forms may be involved in the symplastic translocation of Cd from cortex into stele, and this may lead the higher Cd concentrations in the stele of roots and then above ground leaves via long-distance transport in Kentucky bluegrass.