Conferring cadmium resistance to mature tobacco plants through metal-adsorbing particles of tomato mosaic virus vector.
Tomato mosaic virus vectors were designed that produced, by a translational readthrough, a fusion protein consisting of coat protein and metal-binding peptide, as a result of which particles were expected to present the metal-binding peptides on their surface. When inoculated in plants, they were expected to replicate and form a metal-adsorbing artificial sink in the cytoplasm, so as to reduce metal toxicity. Vectors were constructed harbouring sequences encoding various lengths of polyhistidine as a metal-binding peptide. One of the vectors, TLRT6His, which contains a 6 x histidine sequence, moved systemically in tobacco plants, and its particles were shown to retain cadmium ions by an in vitro assay. When a toxic amount of cadmium was applied, the toxic effect was much reduced in TLRT6His-inoculated tobacco plants, probably as a result of cadmium adsorption by TLRT6His particles in the cytosol. This shows the possible use of an artificial sink for metal tolerance and the advantage of employing a plant viral vector for phytoremediation.
Shingu
Yoshinori
Y
Environmental Plant Research Group, RIKEN Plant Science Center, Suehiro-cho 1-7-22, Tsurumi, Yokohama, 230-0045, Japan.
Yokomizo
Satoko
S
Kimura
Makoto
M
Ono
Yoshiro
Y
Yamaguchi
Isamu
I
Hamamoto
Hiroshi
H
D002104:Cadmium / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism; D011523:Protoplasts / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology; D017898:Tobamovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D002104:Cadmium