Loss of AtPDR11, a plasma membrane-localized ABC transporter, confers paraquat tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Paraquat is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. However, no paraquat transporter has been isolated in plants. Here, we describe paraquat-tolerant mutant pqt24-1, isolated from an activation-tagging library on the basis of its tolerance to 2 μm paraquat in the seedling stage. Molecular analysis revealed that the T-DNA was inserted in the 13th exon of At1g66950, which encodes AtPDR11, a member of the ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily. As a result, AtPDR11 was knocked out in the mutant. Loss-of-function mutations of AtPDR11 led to reduced paraquat accumulation in plant cells. In addition, the AtPDR11 protein was specifically localized in the plasmalemma, suggesting AtPDR11 as a potential transporter of paraquat. This conclusion was supported by kinetic analysis of paraquat import. Further studies showed that the transcript level of AtPDR11 could be strongly induced by paraquat and other abiotic stresses including H(2) O(2) , indicating possible up-regulation of AtPDR11 expression by oxidative stress signaling. Thus, our data suggest that paraquat is an opportunistic substrate of AtPDR11 and the enhanced paraquat tolerance of pqt24-1 is due to reduced uptake of paraquat into plant cells.