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Expression patterns of the rice class I metallothionein gene family in response to lead stress in rice seedlings and functional complementation of its members in lead-sensitive yeast cells

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  • Plant Physiology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Metallothioneins (MTs) are a group of low molecular mass and cysteine-rich proteins that can chelate heavy-metal ions. In this paper, Northern blot analysis was used to investigate the influence of lead stress on the expression patterns of 10 rice class I MT genes (OsMT-Is) in rice seedlings. With the exception of OsMT-I-3b, the data demonstrate dynamic changes of 9 OsMT-I transcripts in response to Pb2+ treatment in rice seedling roots. Of these genes, transcription of OsMT-I-1a, OsMT-I-1b, OsMT-I-2c, OsMT-I-4a, OSMT-I-4b and OsMT-I-4c increased significantly, while transcription of OsMT-I-2a and OsMT-I-3a increased marginally. In contrast, the expression of OsMT-I-2b was inhibited. Pb2+ induced the expression of 6 OsMT-I genes in seedling shoots, but had no obvious effects on the expression of OsMT-I-1a, OsMT-I-1b, OsMT-I-4a and OsMT-I-4b. All the 10 OsMT-Is had enhanced lead tolerance when heterologously expressed in lead-sensitive yeast mutant cells. These results provide an expression profile of the rice MT gene family in response to Pb2+ stress in rice seedlings and demonstrate increased lead tolerance in sensitive yeast mutant cells expressing OsMT-Is. This study lays a foundation for further analysis of the role of the rice MT gene family in respond to Pb2+ stress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Protein Science Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xu YuFeng, Zhou GongKe, Zhou Lu, Li YiQin & Liu JinYuan

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  1. Xu YuFeng
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  2. Zhou GongKe
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  3. Zhou Lu
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  4. Li YiQin
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  5. Liu JinYuan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liu JinYuan.

Additional information

Supported by the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (Grant No. 2006CB101706) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30270753 & 30370804)

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Xu, Y., Zhou, G., Zhou, L. et al. Expression patterns of the rice class I metallothionein gene family in response to lead stress in rice seedlings and functional complementation of its members in lead-sensitive yeast cells. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 2203–2209 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0335-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0335-5

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