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Science 30 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5855, p. 1417
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146634
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Plants Tolerant of High Boron Levels

Kyoko Miwa,1 Junpei Takano,1 Hiroyuki Omori,1 Motoaki Seki,2 Kazuo Shinozaki,2 Toru Fujiwara1,3*

Reduced crop productivity due to soils containing toxic levels of boron (B) is a worldwide problem in food production. It is estimated that up to 17% of the barley yield losses in southern Australia are caused by B toxicity. We found that the expression of AtBOR4, an Arabidopsis paralog of BOR1, the first identified boron transporter gene, generates plants that are tolerant of high B levels. BOR4 is a polarly localized borate exporter that enhances B efflux from roots. The present study is a foundation for the improvement of crop productivity in soils containing excess B, which are distributed in arid areas of the world.

1 Biotechnology Research Center, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
2 RIKEN Plant Science Center, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan.
3 Solution-Oriented Research for Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: atorufu{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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