ABSTRACT

Universities play an important role in society and in providing solutions for its problems. Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems facing the world today. Thus, universities are increasingly including subjects related to the environment and its conservation both in their educational and research programmes. Generally, undergraduate students know many benefits of plants, such as being sources for food and several bioactive compounds, provision of atmospheric oxygen and soil conservation. However, they are less aware of the potential of plants in ‘cleaning’ environmental pollutants. To this end, a useful biochemistry laboratory approach is described that guides students to learn about the applicability of phytoremediation using in vitro plant cultures (hairy roots) to degrade an organic pollutant (phenol) from a synthetic solution. This laboratory approach has been successfully implemented in university Plant Biotechnology courses to deepen understanding about phytoremediation potential and highlight the biochemical basis of this process. This procedure can be easily adopted to increase student learning of environmental issues, and awareness about the potential of using plants for environmental remediation processes.

摘要

大学在社会中发挥着重要作用，并在为社会问题提供解决方案方面发挥着重要作用。环境污染是当今世界面临的最严重的问题之一。因此，大学越来越多地将与环境及其保护相关的学科纳入其教育和研究计划。一般来说，本科生知道植物的许多好处，例如作为食物和几种生物活性化合物的来源、提供大气氧气和保持土壤。然而，他们对植物在“清洁”环境污染物方面的潜力知之甚少。为此，描述了一种有用的生物化学实验室方法，可指导学生了解使用体外植物修复的适用性植物培养物（毛状根）从合成溶液中降解有机污染物（苯酚）。这种实验室方法已在大学植物生物技术课程中成功实施，以加深对植物修复潜力的理解，并突出该过程的生化基础。可以很容易地采用此程序来增加学生对环境问题的学习，以及对使用植物进行环境修复过程的潜力的认识。