Heavy metal pumps in plants. 1997 annual progress report

'Plants have been proposed as a bioremediation tool to help remove toxic heavy metals from contaminated land and water. However, little is known about how plants take up heavy metals from the soil and transport them to different parts of the plant. An important long term goal is to understand how heavy metals, such as copper and cadmium, are transported across the plasma membrane of plant cells. The proposed research is focused on a putative heavy metal uptake pump, AXA2p [Arabidopsis X (unknown heavy metal) ATPase, isoform 2 protein], identified in a model plant, Arabidopsis. AXA belongs to a super-family of ion-translocating P-type ATPases and is the first heavy metal pump cloned from plants. AXA2 is most similar to a subfamily of pumps recently identified in bacteria, yeast and humans which appear to pump heavy metals such as copper and cadmium. Three specific aims are proposed: (1) Determine the ion specificity of the AXA2 pump, (2) Determine how pumping activity is regulated, and (3) Determine if an increased uptake of specific heavy metals can be achieved by engineering a transgenic plant with a hyper-active pump. The hypothesis being tested is that AXA2 encodes a high affinity uptake pump for copper, with lower affinity for metals such as cadmium, zinc and nickel. Fundamental research on heavy metal transporters may eventually permit transgenic plants to be engineered with specific heavy metal uptake systems useful for bioremediation. The long term goal of the proposed research is to understand how heavy metals, such as copper and cadmium, are taken up from the soil and translocated throughout the plant. The focus is on a putative heavy metal pump, AXA2p [Arabidopsis X (unknown heavy metal) ATPase, isoform 2 protein], identified in a model plant, Arabidopsis. AXA2 belongs to a large family of ion-translocating P-type ATPases. AXA2p is the first heavy metal pump cloned from plants and is most similar to a subfamily of heavy metal pumps recently identified in bacteria, yeast and humans.