Cobalt Induced Toxicity and Tolerance in Plants

It is widely known that heavy metals (HM) severely impair plant growth and development, posing a serious threat to food security and human health. Anthropogenic activities and an increasing trend toward industrialization combined with a rising population are further exacerbating environmental conditions, posing a massive global challenge to sustainable agriculture. Cobalt (Co) is one of the toxic and nonessential HM and has become a major pollutant affecting global food production and quality. High Co concentrations negatively affect plant growth and development by causing oxidative damage, nutrient deficiencies, and impairment of the photosynthetic apparatus. In response, plants show a range of changes in metabolism and growth that help them avoid stress-induced changes. Recent advances in "omics" technology (transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, etc.) have helped track down transcription factors, metabolites, and stress-triggered proteins that play a role in stress tolerance and that can be used for metal tolerance or the development of resilient plant systems. Advances in omics have generated extensive resources for genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics of plants that respond flexibly to provocations triggered by heavy metals. This chapter will brief Co induce changes and insights into omics approaches to understand Co-stress tolerance.