Closely-related species of hyperaccumulating plants and their ability in accumulation of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn

Soil contamination by heavy metals is widespread. Heavy metals of concern include As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. Hyperaccumulating plants are efficient in accumulating metals, which have potential to remediate metal-contaminated soils. Species of closely-related hyperaccumulating plants have been used to screen their ability in metal accumulation. However, there is limited evidence to show that closely-related plant species have similar ability in metal accumulation. Using a global database of 664 hyperaccumulating plants, we constructed a phylogeny of hyperaccumulating plants of As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. We evaluated the phylogenetic randomness of plants hyperaccumulating different metals by comparing the minimum number of trait-state changes across the phylogenetic tree to a null model. Based on the D value, we evaluated whether closely-related plants tend to accumulate similar metals. Based on the Blomberg's K and Pagel's λ, we tested whether closely-related plants have similar ability in metal accumulation. Excluding Cd and Pb, closely-related plant species tend to accumulate similar metal, however, its ability cannot be predicted based on phylogenetic relations except Ni. Therefore, we concluded that focusing on species of closely-related hyperaccumulating plants can help to screen new hyperaccumulators although their ability could be different.