A novel family of PLAC8 motif-containing/PCR genes mediates Cd tolerance and Cd accumulation in rice

Background Cd is one of the highly toxic heavy metals to most organisms, including humans and plants, and Cd-contaminated rice from China has become a global food safety issue. The early prediction of OsPCR (the plant cadmium resistance protein) which contained a PLAC8 domain was related with the accumulation of Cd in rice. To further understand the biological function of the OsPCR genes on the Cd tolerance and Cd accumulation in rice, we used a...