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Phytochelatin-mediated cadmium tolerance inschizosaccharomyces pombe

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Summary

Plants and certain fungi respond to heavy metal toxicity with the induced synthesis of metal-binding peptides known as phytochelatins (PCs). With cadmium, PCs can bind the metal to form a low molecular weight PC-Cd complex and a high molecular weight PC-Cd-S2− complex. The sulfide ions enhance the stability and Cd-binding capacity of the metal chelate, and formation of this sulfide-containing complex is associated with enhanced tolerance to cadmium. Molecular analyses of two fission yeast mutants that fail to produce a wild type level of the PC-Cd-S2− complex have determined that a vacuolar membrane transporter and several enzymes of the purine biosynthesis pathway are necessary in vivo for formation of the PC- Cd-S2− complex. A model based on vacuolar sequestration of the PC-Cd complex by an ATP-binding cassette-type transporter and its subsequent maturation into the stable PC-Cd-S2− complex via the actions of two purine biosynthetic enzymes is described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Gene Expression Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Plant Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 800 Buchanan Street, 94710, Albany, California

    David W. Ow

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  1. David W. Ow
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Presented in the Session-in-Depth Bioremediation through Biotechnological Means at the 1993 Congress on Cell and Tissue Culture, San Diego, CA, June 5–9, 1993.

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Ow, D.W. Phytochelatin-mediated cadmium tolerance inschizosaccharomyces pombe . In Vitro Cell Dev Biol - Plant 29, 213–219 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632037

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632037

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