Two functionally distinct members of the MATE (multi-drug and toxic compound extrusion) family of transporters potentially underlie two major aluminum tolerance QTLs in maize

Crop yields are significantly reduced by aluminum (Al) toxicity on acidic soils, which comprise up to 50% of the world's arable land. Al-activated release of ligands (such as organic acids) from the roots is a major Al tolerance mechanism in plants. In maize, Al-activated root citrate exudation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology 2010-03, Vol.61 (5), p.728-740
Main Authors: Maron, Lyza G, Piñeros, Miguel A, Guimarães, Claudia T, Magalhaes, Jurandir V, Pleiman, Jennifer K, Mao, Chuanzao, Shaff, Jon, Belicuas, Silvia N.J, Kochian, Leon V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alumina
Aluminum
Aluminum - toxicity
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Arabidopsis
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Carrier Proteins - genetics
Carrier Proteins - metabolism
Chromosome Mapping
Cloning, Molecular
Corn
Crops
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene expression
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
Hordeum vulgare
maize
Molecular Sequence Data
multi-drug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE)
Oocytes
organic acids
organic acids and salts
Organic Anion Transporters - genetics
Organic Anion Transporters - metabolism
Plant growth
Plant physiology and development
Plant Proteins - genetics
Plant Proteins - metabolism
Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism
Quantitative Trait Loci
RNA, Plant - genetics
Sequence Alignment
Sorghum
tolerance
Toxicity
transporter
Xenopus
Zea mays
Zea mays - genetics
Zea mays - metabolism
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Summary:Crop yields are significantly reduced by aluminum (Al) toxicity on acidic soils, which comprise up to 50% of the world's arable land. Al-activated release of ligands (such as organic acids) from the roots is a major Al tolerance mechanism in plants. In maize, Al-activated root citrate exudation plays an important role in tolerance. However, maize Al tolerance is a complex trait involving multiple genes and physiological mechanisms. Recently, transporters from the MATE family have been shown to mediate Al-activated citrate exudation in a number of plant species. Here we describe the cloning and characterization of two MATE family members in maize, ZmMATE1 and ZmMATE2, which co-localize to major Al tolerance QTL. Both genes encode plasma membrane proteins that mediate significant anion efflux when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. ZmMATE1 expression is mostly concentrated in root tissues, is up-regulated by Al and is significantly higher in Al-tolerant maize genotypes. In contrast, ZmMATE2 expression is not specifically localized to any particular tissue and does not respond to Al. [¹⁴C]-citrate efflux experiments in oocytes demonstrate that ZmMATE1 is a citrate transporter. In addition, ZmMATE1 expression confers a significant increase in Al tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Our data suggests that ZmMATE1 is a functional homolog of the Al tolerance genes recently characterized in sorghum, barley and Arabidopsis, and is likely to underlie the largest maize Al tolerance QTL found on chromosome 6. However, ZmMATE2 most likely does not encode a citrate transporter, and could be involved in a novel Al tolerance mechanism.
ISSN:0960-7412
1365-313X
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2009.04103.x