Identification of an enzyme which reduces harmful arsenate to arsenite through use of genome-wide association mapping
Research published in PLOS Biology by researchers from the University of Aberdeen demonstrates the use of SNP-tiling arrays to identify an enzyme involved in the reduction of arsenate. These tiling arrays are used to identify single base pair differences in the DNA sequence of a species. This experiment identified the enzyme High Arsenic Content 1 (HAC1) which converts the harmful compound arsenate to arsenite in plants.
For more information see:
The paper - Chao DY, Chen Y, Chen J, Shi S, Chen Z, Wang C, Danku JM, Zhao FJ, Salt DE. Genome-wide association mapping identifies a new arsenate reductase enzyme critical for limiting arsenic accumulation in plants. PLoS Biol. 2014 Dec 2;12(12):e1002009. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002009.
Professor David Salt's research group.