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Tobacco phytochelatin synthase (NtPCS1) plays important roles in cadmium and arsenic tolerance and in early plant development in tobacco

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Abstract

Phytochelatin synthase (PCS) catalyzes the synthesis of phytochelatins, which are involved in heavy metal detoxification in plants and other living organisms. Previously, we cloned a PCS1 gene from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and showed that its expression in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) resulted in increased cadmium (Cd) tolerance and Cd accumulation (Kim et al., J Plant Biol 48:440–447, 2005). To examine the role of NtPCS1 in tobacco, we generated transgenic tobacco lines over-expressing NtPCS1 in the sense or antisense direction. Compared with other PCS1-expressing plants, NtPCS1-expressing tobacco exhibited a unique phenotype: increased tolerance to cadmium and arsenite, but no change in cadmium and arsenic accumulation. In addition, the antisense-NtPCS1 tobacco lines showed growth retardation in the early stage, suggesting that phytochelatin also plays a role in plant development. These results demonstrate that NtPCS1 plays important roles in metal(loid) tolerance as well as in growth and development in tobacco.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, and the Bio-industry Technology Development Program funded by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, KOREA.

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  1. Department of Molecular Biology and Plant Engineering Research Institute, Sejong University, 98 Kunja-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea

    Byoung Doo Lee & Seongbin Hwang

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  1. Byoung Doo Lee
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  2. Seongbin Hwang
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Correspondence to Seongbin Hwang.

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Lee, B.D., Hwang, S. Tobacco phytochelatin synthase (NtPCS1) plays important roles in cadmium and arsenic tolerance and in early plant development in tobacco. Plant Biotechnol Rep 9, 107–114 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-015-0348-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-015-0348-5

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