Department of Plant Sciences

Boron transport has long been believed as a passive process. In the last several years, with the use of molecular genetics, transporters responsible for boron transport have been identified. Transporters responsible for boron uptake, xylem loading, distribution among leaves, efflux from roots are now described and through the characterization of these transporters, it is now revealed that plants regulate these transporters in response to the boron conditions in the environment for boron homeostasis. Further more, with the use of the knowledge of the transport systems, plants tolerant to low- or high-boron stress are generated. These technologies may be useful to design plants/crops tolerant to soils with low or high boron.