Abstract
Aluminum (Al) ions have toxic effects on plants in acid soil area. Contamination of soil with heavy metals is also a big problem for both agriculture and our health. To characterize high-tolerant mechanisms in wild plants, isolation of high tolerant genes from Andropogon was carried out by the two approaches shown below.
A) Isolation of Al-induced genes; Total-RNA was extracted from Al treated plants and then used for fingerprint method. Nine of Al-inducible candidates were obtained. After DNA sequencing, highly homologous full-length cDNA for each clone was obtained from maize or rice. To identify which clones can confer Al tolerant phenotype, these clones were introduced into yeast. B) Direct screening; The total-RNA was also used for a construction of cDNA library, and tolerant genes were directly screening by yeast system. Six candidates conferring tolerance to various stresses were independently isolated. Further characterizations are proceeding for the isolated clones.
