Rice plants take up iron.pdf

Rice plants take up iron as an Fe3t-phytosiderophore and as Fe2t Yasuhiro Ishimaru1, Motofumi Suzuki1, Takashi Tsukamoto1, Kazumasa Suzuki2, Mikio Nakazono2, Takanori Kobayashi1,3, Yasuaki Wada1, Satoshi Watanabe4, Shinpei Matsuhashi4, Michiko Takahashi1, Hiromi Nakanishi5, Satoshi Mori5 and Naoko K. Nishizawa1,3,* 1Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan, 2Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan, 3Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan, 4Department of Radiation Research for Environment and Resources, Takasaki Radiation Chemistry Research Establishment, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan, and 5Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan Received 1 September 2005; accepted 11 October 2005. *For correspondence (fax t813 5841 7514; e-mail annaoko@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp). Summary Only graminaceousmonocots possess the Strategy II iron (Fe)-uptake system in which Fe is absorbed by roots as an Fe3t-phytosiderophore. In spite of being a Strategy II plant, however, rice (Oryza sativa) contains the previously identified Fe2t transporter OsIRT1. In this study, we isolated the OsIRT2 gene from rice, which is highly homologous to OsIRT1. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that OsIRT1 and OsIRT2 are expressed predominantly in roots, and these transporters are induced by low-Fe conditions. When expressed in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cells, OsIRT2 cDNA reversed the growth defects of a yeast Fe-uptake mutant. This was similar to the effect of OsIRT1 cDNA. OsIRT1