Abstract
Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient of many organisms including a human but over intake of Se through foods is toxic. Se-pollution in soils leads accumulation of excess Se in foods, causing toxicity. One of most effective strategies to remove Se from Se-contaminated soil is phytoremediation. In this study, we examined Se-tolerance, Se-accumulation, and expression of Se metabolism-related genes in sulfate transporter SULTR1;2 knockout mutant, sultr1;2, which is tolerant to selenate.
The sultr1;2 was more tolerance to selenate than WS. When these plants were treated with selenate, the amount of total Se in sultr1;2 was the same as that of WS and the amount of organic Se in sultr1;2 was higher than that of WS. Moreover, the expression of Se metabolism-related genes in sultr1;2 were higher than that in WS. These results suggest that sultr1;2 obtains Se-tolerance due to release of Se into the atmosphere via conversion from toxic selenate into non-toxic dimethyl selenide not due to reduction of Se uptake.
