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Duplication of a manganese/cadmium transporter gene reduces cadmium accumulation in rice grain

Nature Food volume 3, pages 597–607 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global contamination of soils with toxic cadmium (Cd) is a serious health threat. Here we found that a tandem duplication of a gene encoding a manganese/Cd transporter, OsNramp5, was responsible for low-Cd accumulation in Pokkali, an old rice cultivar. This duplication doubled the expression of OsNramp5 gene but did not alter its spatial expression pattern and cellular localization. Higher expression of OsNramp5 increased uptake of Cd and Mn into the root cells but decreased Cd release to the xylem. Introgression of this allele into Koshihikari, an elite rice cultivar, through backcrossing significantly reduced Cd accumulation in the grain when cultivated in soil heavily contaminated with Cd but did not affect both grain yield and eating quality. This study not only reveals the molecular mechanism underlying low-Cd accumulation but also provides a useful target for breeding rice cultivars with low-Cd accumulation.

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Fig. 1: Fine mapping of a QTL gene responsible for low-Cd accumulation in rice.
Fig. 2: Comparison of genomic copy number and expression pattern of OsNramp5 between Koshihikari and Pokkali.
Fig. 3: Tissue and cellular localization and transport activity of OsNramp5 in Pokkali.
Fig. 4: Comparison of genomic copy number, gene expression of OsNramp5 and localization of OsNramp5 in Koshihikari and the BC4F3 line.
Fig. 5: Physiological and agronomical characterization of BC4F2/BC4F3 lines.
Fig. 6: Deposition pattern of Mn and Cd in roots of Koshihikari and the BC4F3 line.
Fig. 7: Concentrations of Cd and Mn in the root cell sap and xylem sap of Koshihikari and the BC4F3 line.
Fig. 8: A representative scheme for low-Cd accumulation in rice.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

Sequence data of this article have been registered in the DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL databases under the accession numbers LC717507 for duplicated OsNramp5 in Pokkali.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (KAKENHI grant numbers 16H06296 and 21H05034 to J.F.M.) and the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (number 42020104004 to R.F.S.). We thank A. Morita, Y. Takahashi, M. Hikasa, Y. Murasawa and S. Rikiishi for their experimental assistance.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: En Yu, Wenguang Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Japan

    En Yu, Wenguang Wang, Naoki Yamaji, Jing Che, Fenglin Deng & Jian Feng Ma

  2. State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China

    Wenguang Wang

  3. National Institute of Crop Science, National Agriculture Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan

    Shuichi Fukuoka, Tsuyu Ando, Kiyosumi Hori & Masahiro Yano

  4. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Jing Che & Ren Fang Shen

  5. Faculty of Agriculture and Marine Science, Kochi University, Nankoku, Japan

    Daisei Ueno

  6. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China

    Fenglin Deng

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Contributions

J.F.M. designed the research. E.Y., W.W., N.Y., S.F., J.C., D.U., T.A., F.D., K.H., M.Y., R.F.S. and J.F.M. performed the experiment. E.Y., W.W., N.Y. and J.F.M. analysed the data. E.Y. and J.F.M. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Jian Feng Ma.

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Yu, E., Wang, W., Yamaji, N. et al. Duplication of a manganese/cadmium transporter gene reduces cadmium accumulation in rice grain. Nat Food 3, 597–607 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00569-w

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