Heavy Metals and Photosynthesis: Recent Developments

Heavy metals are among the main pollutants affecting plant photosynthesis. A broad literature screening reveals that heavy metals impair, in a type- and dose-dependent manner, many aspects related to the photosynthetic apparatus. This chapter explores how stomatal and mesophyll conductances, chloroplasts, photosynthetic pigments, photosystems I and II, photosynthetic enzymes, and the antioxidant defense mechanism are negatively affected by heavy metals. It also describes how hyperaccumulator plants cope with potential disturbances in photosynthesis upon heavy metal stress.