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Genomic scale profiling of nutrient and trace elements in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Understanding the functional connections between genes, proteins, metabolites and mineral ions is one of biology's greatest challenges in the postgenomic era. We describe here the use of mineral nutrient and trace element profiling as a tool to determine the biological significance of connections between a plant's genome and its elemental profile. Using inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy, we quantified 18 elements, including essential macro- and micronutrients and various nonessential elements, in shoots of 6,000 mutagenized M2 Arabidopsis thaliana plants. We isolated 51 mutants with altered elemental profiles. One mutant contains a deletion in FRD3, a gene known to control iron-deficiency responses in A. thaliana. Based on the frequency of elemental profile mutations, we estimate 2–4% of the A. thaliana genome is involved in regulating the plant's nutrient and trace element content. These results demonstrate the utility of elemental profiling as a useful functional genomics tool.

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Figure 1: Mutant identification charts of a selected mutant in M2 and M3 generations.
Figure 2: Mutant identification charts of selected mutant and wild-type plants.
Figure 3: Mutant identification chart of segregating mutant allele with frd3.
Figure 4: Discriminant analysis of selected mutants.
Figure 5: Summary of the mutants identified by ICP-MS.

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Acknowledgements

This project is part of a larger collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation Plant Functional Genomics program (0077378-DBI) awarded to Mary Lou Guerinot, David Eide, Jeff Harper, David E. Salt and Julian Schroeder. More details about the collaborators and project can be found at http://plantst.sdsc.edu/. We also thank Venugopal Naga Venkata Gudimetla and Yanrong Zhaoy for assistance with database design and data analysis.

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Correspondence to David E Salt.

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Lahner, B., Gong, J., Mahmoudian, M. et al. Genomic scale profiling of nutrient and trace elements in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nat Biotechnol 21, 1215–1221 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt865

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