ATP-binding cassette and multidrug and toxic compound extrusion transporters in plants: a common theme among diverse detoxification mechanisms.

Plants have developed elaborate detoxification mechanisms to cope with a large number of potentially toxic compounds, which include exogenous xenobiotics and endogenous metabolites, especially secondary metabolites. After enzymatic modification or synthesis, such compounds are transported and accumulated in apoplastic cell walls or central vacuoles in plant cells. Membrane transporters actively catalyze translocation of a diverse range of these compounds across various membranes within cells. Biochemical, molecular, and genetic studies have begun to reveal functions of a handful of ATP-binding cassette and multidrug and toxic compound extrusion family transporters engaged in transport of organic xenobiotics, heavy metals, metalloids, aluminum, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, terpenoid-derived phytohormones, cuticle lipids, and monolignols in plants. This detoxification versatility and metabolic diversity may underlie the functional diversification in plants of these families of transporters, which are largely involved in multidrug resistance in microorganisms and animals.