Cloning and functional identification of two members of the ZIP (Zrt, Irt-like protein) gene family in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Two ZIP (Zrt, Irt-like Protein) cDNAs were isolated from rice (Oryza sativa L.) by RT-PCR approach, and named as OsZIP7a and OsZIP8 respectively. The predicted proteins of OsZIP7a and OsZIP8 consist of 384 and 390 amino acid residues respectively, and display high similarity to other plant ZIP proteins. Each protein contains eight transmembrane (TM) domains and a highly conserved ZIP signature motif, with a histidine-rich region in the variable region between TM domains III and IV. By semi-quantitative RT-PCR approach, it was found that the expression of OsZIP7a was significantly induced in rice roots by iron-deficiency, while that of OsZIP8 induced in both rice roots and shoots by zinc-deficiency. When expressed in yeast cells, OsZIP7a and OsZIP8 could complement an iron-uptake-deficient yeast mutant and a zinc-uptake-deficient yeast mutant respectively. It suggested that the OsZIP7a and OsZIP8 might encode an iron and a zinc transporter protein in rice respectively. Xia Yang and Ji Huang are contributed equally to this work.