Abstract
Cadmium pollution threatens food safety and security by causing health issues and reducing farmland availability. Engineering genetic changes in crop plants to lower Cd accumulation can be a cost-effective approach to address this problem. Previously, we reported that a rice line, 2B, which expresses a truncated version of OsO3L2 had reduced Cd accumulation throughout the plant, including in seed. However, downstream events caused by expression of this gene were not known. In this study, RNA-seq was used to identify differentially expressed genes between the wild type and 2B rice with or without Cd treatment, leading to the study of an ABC transporter gene, OsABCG48 (ATP-Binding Cassette transporter G family member 48). Heterologous expression of OsABCG48 conferred tolerance to Cd in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Arabidopsis and rice. Moreover, overexpressing OsABCG48 in rice lowered root Cd accumulation that was associated with more extensive lateral root development. These data suggest that OsABCG48 might have applications for engineering low-Cd rice.
Highlights
Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most concerning environmental pollutants in the world.As a nonessential metal, it replaces essential metals to cause ion homeostasis disruption, protein dysfunction, DNA and plasma membrane damage and reactive oxygen species accumulation [1,2,3,4,5]
After comparing line 2B to the wild type (WT) without or with Cd, we focused our study on OsABCG48, a gene involved in Cd tolerance and accumulation in rice that belongs to the ABC transporter G family
As OsO3L2 is an OXS3 (OXidative Stress 3) protein family member that resides in the nucleus and co-localizes with histone H2A [21,23], we speculated that OsO3L2 might be a regulator of downstream genes
Summary
Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most concerning environmental pollutants in the world.As a nonessential metal, it replaces essential metals to cause ion homeostasis disruption, protein dysfunction, DNA and plasma membrane damage and reactive oxygen species accumulation [1,2,3,4,5]. A major route of Cd intake is through the food chain; farm animal bones and internal organs are not a major part of the human diet, especially in developed countries, plant-derived Cd is a major source [7,8]. Cd from contaminated soil can be transferred to humans via plant uptake, and Cd soil pollution has been a concern for food security and public health. Cd contamination in rice and durum wheat has been reported on many occasions, and in the case of rice, it has been a publicized problem in many parts of East and South East Asia, especially since rice provides the major calorie intake [9,10,11,12,13,14]
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