Systematic Isolation and Characterization of Cadmium Tolerant Genes in Tobacco: A cDNA Library Construction and Screening Approach

Heavy metal pollution is a major limiting factor that severely affects plant growth worldwide, and the accumulation of heavy metal in the plant may be hazardous to human health. To identify the processes involved in cadmium detoxification, we constructed a cDNA library of tobacco roots acclimated to cadmium (Cd) stress. According to the results of functional screening cDNA library with a yeast Cd-sensitive mutant, ycf1Δ, we obtained a series of candidate genes that were involved in Cd response. Sequence analysis and yeast functional complementation of 24 positive cDNA clones revealed that, in addition to antioxidant genes, genes implicated in abiotic and biotic stress defenses, cellular metabolism, and signal transduction showed Cd detoxification effects in yeast. The real time RT-PCR analyses revealed that some Cd tolerance/ detoxification genes may be able to anticipate in other stresses such as biotic defense and water balance in tobacco. Taken together, our data suggest that plants’ acclimation to Cd stress is a highly complex process associated with broad gene functions. Moreover, our results provide insights into the Cd detoxification mechanisms along with the antioxidant system, defense gene induction, and calcium signal pathway.