Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Functional Characterization Of Metallothioneins In Arabidopsis And Barley, Nimnara Yookongkaew
Functional Characterization Of Metallothioneins In Arabidopsis And Barley, Nimnara Yookongkaew
Open Access Dissertations
Metalothioneins (MTs) are metal binding proteins that can bind metals such as Cu, Zn, and Cd but the functions of MTs in plants are largely unknown. To understand the function of MTs in Arabidopsis, T-DNA insertion mutants lacking 4 MT genes including MT1a, MT2a, MT2b and MT3 were developed. The quadruple mutant (mt1a/mt2a/mt2b/mt3) showed no visible phenotype under standard growth conditions. However, it accumulated higher Cu in leaves compared to wild type but lower Cu in seeds. Further analysis showed that triple mutants lacking both MT1a and MT2b, which are highly expressed in vascular tissues, had similar …