Arsenic Tolerant Fern May Clean Toxic Land

Scientists at Purdue University were amazed upon finding that the fern Pteris vittata can tolerate 100 to 1,000 times more arsenic than other plants. "It actually sucks the arsenic out of the soil and puts it in the fronds. It's the only multi-cellular organism that can do this," said Jody Banks, a professor of botany and plant pathology at Purdue University.

Banks and David Salt, a professor of horticulture, attempted to isolate the gene that allowed fern to tolerate the high levels of arsenic through yeast functional complementation. Thousands of different fern genes were combined with thousands of yeast cells and exposed to arsenic. Surviving yeast cells were picked, further studied and the DNA sequences introduced back in reverse order to the fern, to knock down the gene function. The resultant plants were not able to survive upon exposure to arsenic.

Further studies showed that the protein encoded by the gene is found in the plant's cell vacuole where it serves as a pump to move arsenic out of the cytoplasm. This study could lead to ways to clean up arsenic-contaminated land.

The journal article is published in Plant Cell and the news article and abstract can be found at  http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100610BanksFern.html