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Plant Physiology Preview Published on June 4, 2004; 10.1104/pp.103.037739
Received December 15, 2003 A Novel Family of Cys-Rich Membrane Proteins Mediates Cadmium Resistance in Arabidopsis
National Research Laboratory of Phytoremediation, Division of Molecular Life Science (W.-Y.S., E.M., J.L., D.K., D.-Y.K., D.S.) and Center for Plant Intracellular Trafficking (I.H.), POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Korea; Division of Applied Biology and Chemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (W.-Y.S., K.S.C.) and Institute of Biotechnology (W.-Y.S., K.S.C.), Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea; and Institut für Pflanzenbiologie, Universität Zürich, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland (E.M., E.V.) * Corresponding author; email: ylee{at}postech.ac.kr.
Cadmium (Cd) is a widespread pollutant that is toxic to plant growth. However, only a few genes that contribute to Cd resistance in plants have been identified. To identify additional Cd(II) resistance genes, we screened an Arabidopsis cDNA library using a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) expression system employing the Cd(II)-sensitive yeast mutant ycf1. This screening process yielded a small Cys-rich membrane protein (Arabidopsis plant cadmium resistance, AtPcrs). Database searches revealed that there are nine close homologs in Arabidopsis. Homologs were also found in other plants. Four of the five homologs that were tested also increased resistance to Cd(II) when expressed in ycf1. AtPcr1 localizes at the plasma membrane in both yeast and Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis plants overexpressing AtPcr1 exhibited increased Cd(II) resistance, whereas antisense plants that showed reduced AtPcr1 expression were more sensitive to Cd(II). AtPcr1 overexpression reduced Cd uptake by yeast cells and also reduced the Cd contents of both yeast and Arabidopsis protoplasts treated with Cd. Thus, it appears that the Pcr family members may play an important role in the Cd resistance of plants.
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