Influence of Sulfur on Transcription of Genes Involved in Arsenic Accumulation in Rice Grains

• Published in: Plant molecular biology reporter Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 556 - 565
• Main Authors: Zhang, J., Zhao, C.-Y., Liu, J., Song, R., Du, Y.-X., Li, J.-Z., Sun, H.-Z., Duan, G.-L., Zhao, Q.-Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accumulation; Arsenic; Bioinformatics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Life Sciences; Metabolomics; Original Paper; Plant biology; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Plant Sciences; Proteomics; Soil contamination; Sulfur; Rice grains; Differentially expressed genes; Arsenic; Sulfur; Illumina sequencing
• ISSN: 0735-9640; 1572-9818
• DOI: 10.1007/s11105-015-0937-z

Arsenic (As) contamination of rice grains affects millions of people worldwide. In this study, we found that sulfur application (20As+120S) decreased As concentration in rice grains by 44 % compared to grains without sulfur application (20As+0S). Importantly, sulfur application decreased arsenate [As(V)] and arsenite [As(III)] concentration in rice grains significantly, while there was no significant effect on dimethylarsenate (DMA) concentration. To elucidate the molecular basis of As accumulation in rice grains, we performed Illumina sequencing to acquire the differentially expressed genes induced by arsenate and sulfur treatments. By contrast with the control, the expression of 1,000 genes was found to be changed significantly, with 46 genes up-regulated and 954 genes down-regulated in grains grown in arsenate-contaminated soil (20As+0S). Between samples of control and arsenate together with sulfur treatment (20As+120S), 1,169 genes expressed significantly differently, with 16 genes up-regulated and 1,153 genes down-regulated. Sulfur application significantly changed the expression of genes involved in As metabolism in rice grains, significantly down-regulated phosphate transporter gene
OsPT23
and aquaporin gene
OsTIP4;2
, while ABC transporter genes (
OsABCG5
,
OsABCI7_2
and
OsABC6
) and phytochelatin synthase genes (
OsPCS1
,
OsPCS3
and
OsPCS13
) were up-regulated. These results provide an insight into the molecular basis of how sulfur assimilation regulates As accumulation in rice grains.