Duckweed family as a model object for toxicological testing of water and soil

We considered a toxicological testing of water and soil environments using species of the duckweed family. The review of works on the use of duckweeds as model objects in biological testing of soil is presented. We considered several blocks of questions: the history of works with duckweed species, responses of the test-objects to the action of heavy metals and pollutants. We paid some attention to the issue of the availability of collections with identified clones suitable for toxicological testing and discussed the question of the duckweed responses to pollution and the possibility of developing approaches to analytical systems or biomarkers. The questions of the gene markers usage in toxicological testing based on the duckweed test, the presence of a collection of clones and visual databases are still remaining to be discussed. Another block of issues considered in the article is related to the prospect of using visual phenotyping of duckweed plants under experimental conditions. To date, this approach has been successfully used in Russia, the USA and Germany, that allows processing visual information using information technology and detail the spectrum of plant damages.