The Combined Action of Duplicated Boron Transporters Is Required for Maize Growth in Boron-Deficient Conditions.

ABSTRACT: The micronutrient boron is essential in maintaining the structure of plant cell walls and is critical for high yields in crop species. Boron can move into plants by diffusion or by active and facilitated transport mechanisms. We recently showed that mutations in the maize boron efflux transporter ROTTEN EAR (RTE) cause severe developmental defects and sterility. RTE is part of a small gene family containing five additional members (RTE2-RTE6) that show tissue-specific expression. The close paralogous gene RTE2 encodes a protein with 95% amino acid identity with RTE and is similarly expressed in shoot and root cells surrounding the vasculature. Despite sharing a similar function with RTE, mutations in the RTE2 gene do not cause growth defects in the

SUBMITTER: Chatterjee M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5560805 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature