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SULTR 3;1 is a chloroplast‐localized sulfate transporter in Arabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
Cao MinJie,
Wang Zhen,
Wirtz Markus,
Hell Ruediger,
Oliver David J.,
Xiang ChengBin
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/tpj.12059
Subject(s) - arabidopsis thaliana , chloroplast , transporter , arabidopsis , biology , genetics , gene , mutant
Summary Plants play a prominent role as sulfur reducers in the global sulfur cycle. Sulfate, the major form of inorganic sulfur utilized by plants, is absorbed and transported by specific sulfate transporters into plastids, especially chloroplasts, where it is reduced and assimilated into cysteine before entering other metabolic processes. How sulfate is transported into the chloroplast, however, remains unresolved; no plastid‐localized sulfate transporters have been previously identified in higher plants. Here we report that SULTR 3;1 is localized in the chloroplast, which was demonstrated by SULTR 3;1‐ GFP localization, Western blot analysis, protein import as well as comparative analysis of sulfate uptake by chloroplasts between knockout mutants, complemented transgenic plants, and the wild type. Loss of SULTR 3;1 significantly decreases the sulfate uptake of the chloroplast. Complementation of the sultr3;1 mutant phenotypes by expression of a 35S‐ SULTR 3;1 construct further confirms that SULTR 3;1 is one of the transporters responsible for sulfate transport into chloroplasts.