Overexpression of PtABCC1 contributes to mercury tolerance and accumulation in Arabidopsis and poplar

Mercury (Hg) is a highly biotoxic heavy metal that contaminates the environment. Phytoremediation is a green technology for environmental remediation and is used to clean up Hg contaminated soil in recent years. In this study, we isolated an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter gene PtABCC1 from Populus trichocarpa and overexpressed it in Arabidopsis and poplar. The transgenic plants conferred higher Hg tolerance than wild type (WT) plants, and overexpression of PtABCC1 could lead to 26–72% or 7–160% increase of Hg accumulation in Arabidopsis or poplar plants, respectively. These results demonstrated that PtABCC1 plays a crucial role in enhancing tolerance and accumulation to Hg in plants, which provides a promising way for phytoremediation of Hg contamination. •Overexpression of PtABCC1 enhanced Hg tolerance in Arabidopsis and poplar.•Overexpression of PtABCC1 enhanced Hg accumulation in Arabidopsis and poplar.•PtABCC1 was the first identified poplar ABC transporter for phytoremediation of Hg.