Nature Communications (Feb 2018)

A defensin-like protein drives cadmium efflux and allocation in rice

  • Jin-Song Luo,
  • Jing Huang,
  • Da-Li Zeng,
  • Jia-Shi Peng,
  • Guo-Bin Zhang,
  • Hai-Ling Ma,
  • Yuan Guan,
  • Hong-Ying Yi,
  • Yan-Lei Fu,
  • Bin Han,
  • Hong-Xuan Lin,
  • Qian Qian,
  • Ji-Ming Gong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03088-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Crops that allocate heavy metals to leaves rather than grains could allow phytoremediation of polluted soil while producing food that is safe to eat. Here, the authors show that a defensin-like protein promotes cadmium secretion from rice cells and allocation to leaves without causing accumulation in grain.