In order to test the potential effect of prior exposure to different Cd concentrations on Cd uptake and accumulation, plants of Arabidopsis thaliana, including a phytochelatin-deficient mutant, cad1-3, and the wild type, were compared. For Cd uptake experiments, plants were grown for 1 week in nutrient solution containing different Cd concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 microM Cd(NO(3))(2)). Thereafter they were subjected to 0.5 microM Cd labelled with (109)Cd for 2 h. Uptake experiments with (109)Cd showed that the phytochelatin-deficient mutant cad1-3, accumulated less Cd than the wild type. Both a lower proportion and lower total amount of absorbed Cd were translocated to the shoot in cad1-3 plants compared to wild-type plants. Cadmium exposure also influenced the amounts of nutrients found, whereby after exposure to high Cd concentrations (0.5, 1.0 microM) during growth, cad1-3 roots contained less Fe, K, Mg, P, and S compared to roots of the wild type. In cad1-3 these elements decreased with increasing Cd concentration. The total Cd content in roots and shoots increased significantly with increasing Cd concentration during growth, although the increase was much less in cad1-3 plants. In time-dependent experiments of Cd uptake carried out between 15 and 120 min on plants not previously exposed to Cd, no significant difference in Cd accumulation between the mutant and wild type were found, although a smaller amount of Cd was translocated to the shoot in cad1-3 plants. The possibility that the differences in Cd accumulation in mutant and wild-type lines may be due to the cytosolic Cd regulation, which is inhibited by the complexation of Cd by phytochelatins, is discussed.