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Isolation and expression analysis of partial sequences of heavy metal transporters from Brassica juncea by coupling high throughput cloning with a molecular fingerprinting technique

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Abstract

Heavy metal transporters play a key role in regulating metal accumulation and transport in plants. These are important candidate genes to study in metal tolerant and accumulator plants for their potential use in environmental clean up. We coupled a degenerate primer-based RT-PCR approach with a molecular fingerprinting technique based on amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) to identify novel ESTs corresponding to heavy metal transporters from metal accumulator Brassica juncea. We utilized this technique to clone several family members of natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (NRAMP) and yellow stripe-like proteins (YSL) in a high throughput manner to distinguish between closely related isoforms and/or allelic variants from the allopolyploid B. juncea. Partial clones of 23 Brassica juncea NRAMPs and 27 YSLs were obtained with similarity to known Arabidopsis thaliana and Noccaea (Thlaspi) caerulescens NRAMP and YSL genes. The cloned transporters showed Brassica-specific changes in domains, which can have important functional consequences. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR-based expression analysis of chosen members indicated that even closely related isoforms/allelic variants of BjNRAMP and BjYSL have distinct tissue-specific and metal-dependent expressions which might be essential for adaptive fitness and heavy metal tolerance. Consistent to this, BjYSL6.1 and BjYSL5.8 were found to show elevated expressions specifically in cadmium-treated shoots and lead-treated roots of B. juncea, respectively.

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Abbreviations

ARDRA:

Amplified rDNA restriction analysis

NRAMP:

Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein

YSL:

Yellow stripe like

SQ RT-PCR:

Semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. Monali Sen acknowledges CSIR, India, and Soumita Das acknowledges Department of Biotechnology, India for their Junior Research Fellowship. Debjani Chakraborty received her fellowship from the Department of Atomic Energy, India. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Maitrayi Banerjee, WB State DST for her help in growing the Brassica plants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700019, India

    Soumita Das, Chinmay Saha, Debjani Chakraborty & Anindita Seal

  2. Department of Biotechnology, West Bengal University of Technology, BF-142, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700064, India

    Monali Sen

  3. Behavioural Neurogenetics Lab, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur, Bangalore, 560064, India

    Antara Das

  4. School of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Manidipa Banerjee

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  1. Soumita Das
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Correspondence to Anindita Seal.

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Das, S., Sen, M., Saha, C. et al. Isolation and expression analysis of partial sequences of heavy metal transporters from Brassica juncea by coupling high throughput cloning with a molecular fingerprinting technique. Planta 234, 139–156 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1376-1

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