The transcriptomic and metabolomic basis of heavy metal tolerance in Viola spp.

The project aims to identify the molecular and chemical mechanisms underlying tolerance to heavy metals in Viola spp. The project focuses mainly on an example of heavy metal excluder, Viola tricolor represented by two genotypes: metallicolous (MET), growing at polluted sites, and non-metallicolous (NMET), growing at non-polluted sites, both differing morphologically, genetically, and in the capability of accumulating heavy metals to indicate the genotype-dependent basis of tolerance to heavy metals. The additional aim is to investigate other heavy metal tolerant and non-tolerant Viola sp.