Host: The Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists
Pages 0033
Pteris vittata is an arsenic (As) hyperaccumulating fern, which is a candidate for phytoremediation of As-contaminated soils. As mostly occurs as arsenate in soils and was reduced to arsenite in plant tissues by arsenate reductase (AR). It has been shown that the detoxification of As in plant is achieved by binding this arsenite with thiols, such as γ-glutamylcysteine (γEC), glutathione, and phytochelatin (PC). Since γEC is a precursor of glutathione and phytochelatin, γEC synthetase (γECS) is considered to be a key enzyme in detoxification of As in plant. In the present study, therefore, As detoxification mechanisms in P. vittata was investigated with emphasis on γECS.
A full-length cDNA sequence encoding γECS has been isolated from P. vittata. Effects of As concentration and species (arsenate or arsenite) in medium on gene expression of PC synthase and AR, which had been cloned before, were analyzed in addition to of γECS.
