Generation of transformants showing mineral-stress tolerance based on the modification of light-harvesting function

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There are many iron-containing proteins working in photosynthetic electron transport chain so that iron deficiency causes the imbalance in the electron transport between photosystem II (PSII) and PSI. We have recently found that iron-deficiency specifically induces a gene of the LHCII family that encodes a homolog of Lhcb1 in barley (Hordeum vulgare), a plant that is tolerant to Fe deficiency. In this study, we demonstrate that a large proportion of HvLhcb1 was stably phosphorylated and located adjacent to PSI rather than PSII under Fe-deficient conditions. These results suggested that the phosphorylation of HvLhcb1 in Fe-deficient barley induces the disconnection of the antenna from the PSII core and migration the protein to PSI, resulting the optimization of the electron transport rate. Finally, we genetically engineered rice plants to express the HvLhcb1 gene and evaluated whether the gene confers tolerance to plants and/or improves plant productivity under various environments.