Plant metallothioneins

New advances in plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria for bioremediation

“…Metallothioneins (MTs) (Robinson et al, 1993;Yoshida et al, 2002) and phytochelatins (PCs) (Cobbett, 2000;Rauser, 1995) are naturally occurring examples of peptides that can effectively bind a wide range of heavy metals with high affinity. The structure of PCs can be represented by (γ-Glu-Cys) n -Gly, and due to their repeating Glu-Cys moieties, PCs are more attractive to heavy metals as they offer the higher metal-binding capacity than MTs (Mehra and Mulchandani, 1995).…”

Overexpression of Nelumbo nucifera metallothioneins 2a and 3 enhances seed germination vigor in Arabidopsis

“…Based on t he arrangement of the Cys residues, MTs are categorized into three classes (Robinson et al 1993;Klaassen, Liu & Choudhuri 1999). Class I includes only MTs from mammalians and vertebrates; Class II contains all other MTs from plants, fungi, and invertebrate animals; Class III is enzymatically derived polypeptides with a poly (gamma-Glu-Cys)-glycine structure.…”

Characteristic and Expression Analysis of a Metallothionein Gene, OsMT2b, Down-Regulated by Cytokinin Suggests Functions in Root Development and Seed Embryo Germination of Rice

“…MT genes have been widely found in animals, plants, and prokaryotes. Not like the primary mammalian MTs that contain 20 highly conserved Cys residues (Klassen et al, 1999), most plant MTs have distinct arrangements of Cys residues (Robinson et al, 1993), which suggests that they may be different not only in sequences but also in functions. According to the arrangement of Cys residues, the MTs of higher plant are further classified into four types that have diverse patterns of expression (Cobbett and Goldsbrough, 2002).…”