Mutational reconstructed ferric chelate reductase confers enhanced tolerance in rice to iron deficiency in calcareous soil

遺伝子改変による高い三価鉄還元酵素活性がイネの石灰質アルカリ土壌における鉄欠乏に対する耐性を強化する

石丸 泰寛*; Kim, S.*; 塚本 崇志*; 大木 宏之*; 小林 高範*; 渡辺 智; 松橋 信平; 高橋 美智子*; 中西 啓仁*; 森 敏*; 西澤 直子*

Ishimaru, Yasuhiro*; Kim, S.*; Tsukamoto, Takashi*; Oki, Hiroyuki*; Kobayashi, Takanori*; Watanabe, Satoshi; Matsuhashi, Shimpei; Takahashi, Michiko*; Nakanishi, Hiromi*; Mori, Satoshi*; Nishizawa, Naoko*

Fe deficiency is a worldwide agricultural problem on calcareous soils. Rice plants use a well documented phytosiderophore-based system to take up Fe from the soil. Rice plants are extremely susceptible to low-Fe supply, however, because of low phytosiderophore secretion and low Fe reduction activity. A yeast Fe chelate-reductase gene , selected for better performance at high pH, was fused to the promoter of the Fe-regulated transporter, , 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 gene showed higher Fe 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.