Iron is essential for plant growth, but with heavy rainfall and poor aeration, many acidic soils become toxic with excess iron.
Iron is essential for plant growth, but with heavy rainfall and poor aeration, many acidic soils become toxic with excess iron. In countries with dramatic flood seasons, such as in West Africa and tropical Asia, toxic iron levels can have dire consequences on the availability of staple foods, such as rice.
Despite dozens of attempts in the last two decades to uncover the genes responsible for iron tolerance, these remained elusive until recently. Now, Salk scientists have found a major genetic regulator of iron tolerance, a gene called GSNOR. The findings, published in Nature Communications on August 29, 2019, could lead to the development of crop species that produce higher yields in soils with excess iron.
“This is the first time that a gene and its natural variants have been identified for iron tolerance,” says Associate Professor Wolfgang Busch, senior author on the paper and a member of Salk’s Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory as well as its Integrative Biology Laboratory. “This work is exciting because we now understand how plants can grow in stressful conditions, such as high levels of iron, which could help us make more stress-resistant crops.”
In plants such as rice, elevated soil iron levels cause direct cellular damage by harming fats and proteins, decreasing roots’ ability to grow. Yet, some plants appear to have inherent tolerance to high iron levels; scientists wanted to understand why.
Read more at Salk Institute
Image: From left: Baohai Li and Wolfgang Busch. (Credit: Salk Institute)
