The joint research of the team of Professor Youngsook Lee of POSTECH and the team of Prof. Martinoia of the University of Zurich with the participation of the team of Prof. Schroeder of UC San Diego discovered botanic gene sets which eradicate the toxicity from arsenic.

The discovery was posted on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as breaking news. Also, the application for a patent for the research was completed.

The discovered gene sets have the codes of AtABCC1 and AtABCC2. The sets protect the plants from being poisoned by arsenic by isolating arsenic to vacuoles from the cytoplasm.

Arsenic has been known to impose severe damage to the soil and water bodies of nations such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. Specifically  the ingestion of arsenic-contaminated plants and seafood is known to accumulate the arsenic in the human body.

The discovery is meaningful in that it sheds light on the development of the plants that could be used to improve environments suffering from arsenic pollution.

Prof. Lee said, “The achievement is the product of the ten years’ bioremediation plants development project. I expect the research could contribute to purify arsenic-polluted soils. Also, I hope it could help the local Southeast Asian people who are suffering from arsenic pollution.