A poplar short-chain dehydrogenase reductase plays a potential key role in biphenyl detoxification
Ángela Contreras, Irene Merino, Enrique Alarcón Álvarez, David Bolonio, José E. Ortíz, Luis Oñate‐Sánchez, Luis Gómez
Abstract
Significance Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated biphenyls, represent a major environmental threat. Besides affecting human health, they negatively affect food security, pest and disease spread, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and the resilience of ecosystems. Plant-based remediation offers important advantages over conventional remediation. However, limited knowledge of POP metabolism in planta can delay the application of molecular tools to genetically improve cleanup efficiency. By integrating functional and structural studies, we define here a plant-specific pathway which is activated by and possibly contributes to detoxifying biphenyl-derived toxicants. This pathway exhibits common features with bacterial biphenyl/PCB degradation but also significant differences. Our results open avenues to improve the success of phytoremediation technologies.