Utilization of Molecular Markers to Detect the Impact of Heavy Metals on Plant Genomes

Heavy metal pollution is a worldwide problem affecting all living beings. The source of heavy metals in the environment can be natural such as volcanos and rock formation, however human activities, industrialization are the main sources of pollution. These activities have caused the reduction of plant diversity and have a negative effect on animal and human health. Plants are affected on multiple levels by these metals, they cause morphological and physiological changes, and they also have an impact on the molecular level. Changes on the molecular level due to abiotic stress are extensively studied. Scientists try to understand the mechanisms of stress response and the epigenetic mechanisms that lead to heavy metal stress resistance. This review article summarizes the molecular genetic methods available today and their ability to detect the changes in plant genome due to heavy metal stress. The article explores omics approaches such as genomics, different DNA marker methods such as RAPD, ISSR, IRAP as monitoring methods for heavy metal pollution in the environment, miRNA omics and transcriptomics as investigation methods for the interactions between genes and heavy metals.