Isolation of Arabidopsis thaliana cDNAs that confer yeast boric acid tolerance

An Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA library was introduced into a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant that lacks ScBOR1 (YNL275W), a boron (B) efflux transporter. Five cDNAs were identified that confer tolerance to high boric acid. The nucleotide sequence analysis identified the clones as a polyadenylate-binding protein, AtPAB2; a ribosomal small subunit protein, AtRPS20B; an RNA-binding protein, AtRBP47c'; and two Myb transcription factors, AtMYB13 and AtMYB68. The expression of these five genes also conferred boric acid tolerance on wild-type yeast. Two yeast genes, ScRPS20 and ScHRB1, that are similar to the isolated clones, were necessary for this boric acid tolerance. The possible roles of these A. thaliana and S. cerevisiae genes in boric acid tolerance are discussed.