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1: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 May 1;104(18):7373-8. Epub 2007 Apr 20.
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Mutational reconstructed ferric chelate reductase confers enhanced tolerance in rice to iron deficiency in calcareous soil.

Ishimaru Y, Kim S, Tsukamoto T, Oki H, Kobayashi T, Watanabe S, Matsuhashi S, Takahashi M, Nakanishi H, Mori S, Nishizawa NK.

Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.

Iron (Fe) deficiency is a worldwide agricultural problem on calcareous soils with low-Fe availability due to high soil pH. Rice plants use a well documented phytosiderophore-based system (Strategy II) to take up Fe from the soil and also possess a direct Fe2+ transport system. Rice plants are extremely susceptible to low-Fe supply, however, because of low phytosiderophore secretion and low Fe3+ reduction activity. A yeast Fe3+ chelate-reductase gene refre1/372, selected for better performance at high pH, was fused to the promoter of the Fe-regulated transporter, OsIRT1, and introduced into rice plants. The transgene was expressed in response to a low-Fe nutritional status in roots of transformants. Transgenic rice plants expressing the refre1/372 gene showed higher Fe3+ chelate-reductase activity and a higher Fe-uptake rate than vector controls under Fe-deficient conditions. Consequently, transgenic rice plants exhibited an enhanced tolerance to low-Fe availability and 7.9x the grain yield of nontransformed plants in calcareous soils. This report shows that enhancing the Fe3+ chelate-reductase activity of rice plants that normally have low endogenous levels confers resistance to Fe deficiency.

PMID: 17449639 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC1854843