ArticlePlant biotechnology journal2011
Metallothionein expression in chloroplasts enhances mercury accumulation and phytoremediation capability.
Article in Plant biotechnology journal, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Probe-based identification of metal-binding sites using deep learning representations.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Comprehensive heavy metal remediation mechanisms with insights into CRISPR-Cas9 and biochar innovations.Biodegradation · 2025Review
- Recent trends and advances in chloroplast engineering and transformation methods.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Chloroplast Engineering: Fundamental Insights and Its Application in Amelioration of Environmental Stress.Applied biochemistry and biotechnology · 2023Review
- Phytoremediation of isoproturon-contaminated sites by transgenic soybean.Plant biotechnology journal · 2023Article
- Natural Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Hyperaccumulation and Hypertolerance towards Heavy Metals.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Gene introduction approaches in chloroplast transformation and its applications.Journal, genetic engineering & biotechnology · 2021Review
- Phytoremediation and Microorganisms-Assisted Phytoremediation of Mercury-Contaminated Soils: Challenges and Perspectives.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Green giant-a tiny chloroplast genome with mighty power to produce high-value proteins: history and phylogeny.Plant biotechnology journal · 2021Review
- Transgenic merA and merB expression reduces mercury contamination in vegetables and grains grown in mercury-contaminated soil.Plant cell reports · 2020Article
- Plastid Transformation: How Does it Work? Can it Be Applied to Crops? What Can it Offer?International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Recent strategies of increasing metal tolerance and phytoremediation potential using genetic transformation of plants.Plant biotechnology reports · 2018Review
- Chloroplast genomes: diversity, evolution, and applications in genetic engineering.Genome biology · 2016Review
- The Engineered Chloroplast Genome Just Got Smarter.Trends in plant science · 2015Review
- In situ remediation technologies for mercury-contaminated soil.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2015Review
- OsTCTP, encoding a translationally controlled tumor protein, plays an important role in mercury tolerance in rice.BMC plant biology · 2015Article
- Engineered chloroplast dsRNA silences cytochrome p450 monooxygenase, V-ATPase and chitin synthase genes in the insect gut and disrupts Helicoverpa zea larval development and pupation.Plant biotechnology journal · 2015Article
- Chloroplast localization of Cry1Ac and Cry2A protein--an alternative way of insect control in cotton.Biological research · 2015Article
- Plastid genomics in horticultural species: importance and applications for plant population genetics, evolution, and biotechnology.Frontiers in plant science · 2015Review
- Heavy Metal Tolerance in Plants: Role of Transcriptomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, and Ionomics.Frontiers in plant science · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Genetic engineering to enhance mercury phytoremediation has been accomplished by expression of the merAB genes that protects the cell by converting Hg[II] into Hg[0] which volatilizes from the cell. A drawback of this approach is that toxic Hg is released back into the environment. A better phytoremediation strategy would be to accumulate mercury inside plants for subsequent retrieval. We report here the development of a transplastomic approach to express the mouse metallothionein gene (mt1) and accumulate mercury in high concentrations within plant cells. Real-time PCR analysis showed that up to 1284 copies of the mt1 gene were found per cell when compared with 1326 copies of the 16S rrn gene, thereby attaining homoplasmy. Past studies in chloroplast transformation used qualitative Southern blots to evaluate indirectly transgene copy number, whereas we used real-time PCR for the first time to establish homoplasmy and estimate transgene copy number and transcript levels. The mt1 transcript levels were very high with 183,000 copies per ng of RNA or 41% the abundance of the 16S rrn transcripts. The transplastomic lines were resistant up to 20 μm mercury and maintained high chlorophyll content and biomass. Although the transgenic plants accumulated high concentrations of mercury in all tissues, leaves accumulated up to 106 ng, indicating active phytoremediation and translocation of mercury. Such accumulation of mercury in plant tissues facilitates proper disposal or recycling. This study reports, for the first time, the use of metallothioneins in plants for mercury phytoremediation. Chloroplast genetic engineering approach is useful to express metal-scavenging proteins for phytoremediation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.