Cadmium Uptake and

Partitioning within the

Cocoa Plant
Nicholas Cryer and Paul Hadley
University of Reading
UK
 Cadmium content of cocoa beans is linked to high
levels in soil, but other factors affect uptake: variety,
soil pH, & availability of other nutrients
• Control Environment
– Greenhouse Study

• Control nutrient and metal supply

– Hydroponic system
• inert ‘soil’
• nutrients via drip irrigation

• Study on young cocoa plants

• Different varieties
– Seed
• International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad
• International Cocoa Quarantine Centre,
Reading
– Clonal material
• Investigate effect of rootstock
 Root Anatomy and metal transport

• All nutrients and metals are taken

in by the roots.
• Transport is a carefully controlled
process.
• Some metals eg zinc, iron,
manganese essential for growth
(Cadmium has no function)
• Metal uptake is an active process
 Cd2+ translocation from root to shoot

From Wong and Cobbett, 2009

• Zinc transporters also move Cadmium

• Separate systems to take metals into root and
then to move from root to shoot.
 Leaf cadmium content for West African Amelonado plants
9000 grown with different cadmium availability
8000

7000

6000
Cadmium concentration (ppb)

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
0.001 mM 0.01 mM 0.02 mM 0.1 mM NTC
Control
pH also affects Cd (and other nutrient) uptake & must be controlled
Treatment
5
 Influence of Cadmium on Root Mass
Effect of Cadmium treatment on Root Mass

1.2

1.1

0.9
Relative Root Mass

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2
Control
NTC 0.001 mM 0.01 mM 0.02 mM 0.1 mM
Cadmium conc.

At 0.02 mM or below there is no obvious effect on the appearance of the plant

(Similar for Plant Height, Total Biomass, Root / Shoot ratio, Chlorophyll content, transpiration)

6
 Cadmium Accumulation in the Leaf in
Response to altered pH of the Nutrient
Solution
 Screen diverse cacao populations for
differences in cadmium uptake and partition

+ “hybrid”
populations
eg ICS

From Motomayor et al 2009

 Cd accumulation by different varieties

Where is Cd accumulated (Root or Shoot)?

How much Cd is accumulated?

9
 Is there even more variation?

• Intermediate Quarantine Centre, Reading

• 400+ varieties
• Available for international use
 Leaf content of Zinc and Iron varies with variety
4

2
Iron content

0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

-1

-2

-3
Zinc content y = 0.6082x - 0.1362
R² = 0.404
11
 Summary
Controlled conditions established to investigate cadmium
uptake in a hydroponic system (close control of pH and)

Cadmium affects the uptake of Zn, Mn and Fe

There is significant variation for cadmium uptake between

varieties

Generally the cadmium content of roots predicts the

content of shoots there are exceptions. Interestingly COCA
3370 / 5, shows a different partition to the other varieties.
12
 Grafted plants – Rootstock Trial

Scion – different variety

(selected for flavour,
disease resistance etc)
Graft union

Rootstock (seedling)
Seedlings Grafted
Seedlings Grafted
 Summary: Effect of rootstock
• Rootstock variety does influence the amount
of cadmium to the leaf.

• Rootstock influences the availability of other

metals (not shown).

• It should be possible to select rootstocks for

use in high cadmium soils.
Molecular approach to detecting variation in genes
responsible for metal ion uptake

• candidate genes from other species have

identifiable homologues in cacao genome
 Future work
Seedling crosses with “low accumulator” parent (MO 20)
– genetic screen to confirm candidate gene/marker

Investigate high and low accumulating varieties from IQC,R.

Link glasshouse and Field study and study of field grown

materials through collaboration with producing country
institute

More generally the influence of rootstock on nutrient

efficiency and yield potential could be further investigated
18
 Acknowledgements
• This work was funded by CR (UK) Ltd.

• Ministry of Food Production, Land and

Marines Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago for
supplying seed.

• Cocoa Research Unit, University of West

Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.