Abstract
Iron-deficiency tolerance of gramineous plants is well correlated with the amount of mugineic acids secreted. However, iron-deficiency symptom of barley and rice was different though the iron content of rice increased by cultivation with barley in the same container. We predict that iron availability in leaves also involved in the mechanism of iron-deficiency tolerance in barley. In the previous report, we suggested that iron availability is different among gramineous plant species. In this work, we compared the expression patterns of iron storage protein ferritin between rice and barley under various iron nutritional condition. In rice, ferritin expression significantly increased by iron excess, whereas ferritin expression in iron deficient barley was the same level as in other iron nutritional condition. The relation between ferritin and iron availability will be discussed.