One mustard gene variant controls cadmium uptake from soil
He D, Wang R, Fan J, Zeng J, Lin Y
Phytoremediation
If you garden near old industrial sites or busy roads, the mustard family plants you choose could either pull toxic cadmium out of your soil or quietly concentrate it in the leaves you eat.
Researchers studied 165 varieties of a mustard relative called Brassica juncea to figure out why some plants soak up way more cadmium (a toxic heavy metal) from soil than others. They traced the difference to a tiny change in a single gene, a one-letter DNA swap that alters one amino acid in a metal-transporting protein. The high-accumulating variety could be useful for cleaning up contaminated farmland, while the low-accumulating variety could help breed safer, lower-cadmium food crops.
Key Findings
High-accumulating genotype BJ20 took up roughly double the shoot cadmium of low-accumulating genotype BJ25 (111.21 vs 55.07 μg per plant) across two years, two sites, and two growth stages.
A single A/G SNP in the gene BjuB05.IRT1 causes a Thr-to-Ala amino acid change and is linked to shoot cadmium levels at flowering (P = 0.048), though not at maturity.
In yeast tests, the high-accumulating allele of BjuB05.IRT1 increased cadmium uptake about 9.5-fold compared with the low-accumulating allele (455.76 vs roughly 48 μg/g).
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found a single gene variant in a mustard plant that controls how much toxic cadmium it soaks up from contaminated soil, which could help breed plants that either clean up polluted farmland or keep cadmium out of food crops.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Natural variation in BjuB05.IRT1 is associated with cadmium accumulation in Brassica juncea.
Phytoremediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated agricultural soils requires suitable germplasm and an improved understanding of the genetic factors underlying Cd accumulation. Here, we evaluated a ge...
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The mustard plant is any one of several plant species in the genera Brassica, Rhamphospermum and Sinapis in the family Brassicaceae. Mustard seed is used as a spice. Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vinegar, or other liquids creates the yellow condiment known as prepared mustard. The see...