Introduction: Ceratophyllum demersum L. is a widespread submerged macrophyte in aquatic environments.

Methods: Simulation experiments were conducted in the laboratory to investigate arsenic (As) accumulation, speciation, and efflux of C. demersum exposed to arsenate and arsenite solutions.

Results: Plant shoots showed a significant accumulation of As with a maximum of 862 and 963 μg As g⁻¹ dry weight after 4 days of exposure to 10 μM arsenate and arsenite, respectively. Regardless of whether arsenate or arsenite was supplied to the plants, arsenite was the predominant species in plant shoots. Furthermore, a dramatically higher influx rate of arsenate compared with arsenite was observed in C. demersum exposed to As solutions without the addition of phosphate (P). Arsenate uptake was considerably inhibited by P in this study, suggesting that arsenate is taken up by C. demersum via the phosphate transporters. However, arsenite uptake was unaffected by P and markedly reduced in the presence of glycerol and antimonite (Sb), indicating arsenite shares the aquaporin transport pathway. In addition, C. demersum rapidly reduces arsenate to arsenite in the shoot of the plant and extrudes most of them (>60 %) to the external solutions. The efflux of arsenite was much higher than that of arsenate; the former is supposed to be both active and passive processes, and the latter through passive leakage.

Conclusion: C. demersum is a strong As accumulator and an interesting model plant to study As uptake and metabolism due to the lack of a root-to-shoot translocation barrier.