Rylott Elizabeth L, Jackson Rosamond G, Edwards James, Womack Grant L, Seth-Smith Helena M B, Rathbone Deborah A, Strand Stuart E, Bruce Neil C
CNAP, Department of Biology, University of York, PO Box 373, York, YO10 5YW, UK.
Nat Biotechnol. 2006 Feb;24(2):216-9. doi: 10.1038/nbt1184. Epub 2006 Jan 22.
The widespread presence in the environment of hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), one of the most widely used military explosives, has raised concern owing to its toxicity and recalcitrance to degradation. To investigate the potential of plants to remove RDX from contaminated soil and water, we engineered Arabidopsis thaliana to express a bacterial gene xplA encoding an RDX-degrading cytochrome P450 (ref. 1). We demonstrate that the P450 domain of XplA is fused to a flavodoxin redox partner and catalyzes the degradation of RDX in the absence of oxygen. Transgenic A. thaliana expressing xplA removed and detoxified RDX from liquid media. As a model system for RDX phytoremediation, A. thaliana expressing xplA was grown in RDX-contaminated soil and found to be resistant to RDX phytotoxicity, producing shoot and root biomasses greater than those of wild-type plants. Our work suggests that expression of xplA in landscape plants may provide a suitable remediation strategy for sites contaminated by this class of explosives.
六氢-1,3,5-三硝基-1,3,5-三嗪（RDX）是使用最为广泛的军用炸药之一，其在环境中的广泛存在因其毒性和难降解性而引发了人们的关注。为了研究植物从受污染土壤和水中去除RDX的潜力，我们对拟南芥进行了基因工程改造，使其表达一种编码RDX降解细胞色素P450的细菌基因xplA（参考文献1）。我们证明，XplA的P450结构域与黄素氧还蛋白氧化还原伴侣融合，并在无氧条件下催化RDX的降解。表达xplA的转基因拟南芥从液体培养基中去除并解毒了RDX。作为RDX植物修复的模型系统，将表达xplA的拟南芥种植在受RDX污染的土壤中，发现其对RDX的植物毒性具有抗性，地上部和根部生物量均大于野生型植物。我们的研究表明，在园林植物中表达xplA可能为受此类炸药污染的场地提供一种合适的修复策略。
