Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental pollutant with high toxicity to animals and plants. It has been established that the glutathione (GSH)-dependent phytochelatin (PC) synthesis pathway is one of the most important mechanisms contributing to Cd accumulation and tolerance in plants. However, the transcription factors involved in regulating GSH-dependent PC synthesis pathway remain largely unknown. Here we identified an Arabidopsis Cd-resistant mutant xcd2-D (XVE system-induced cadmium-tolerance 2) using a forward genetics approach. The mutant gene underlying xcd2-D mutation was revealed to encode a known zinc-finger transcription factor ZAT6. Transgenic plants overexpressing ZAT6 showed significant increase of Cd tolerance, whereas loss-of-function of ZAT6 led to decreased Cd tolerance. Increased Cd accumulation and tolerance in ZAT6-overexpressing lines was GSH-dependent, and associated with Cd-activated synthesis of phytochelatin (PC), which was correlated with coordinated activation of PC-synthesis related gene expression. By contrast, loss-of-function of ZAT6 reduced Cd accumulation and tolerance, which was accompanied by abolished PC synthesis and gene expression. Further analysis revealed that ZAT6 positively regulates the transcription of GSH1, GSH2, PCS1 and PCS2. But ZAT6 is capable of specifically binding to GSH1 promoter in vivo. Consistently, overexpression of GSH1 has been shown to restore Cd sensitivity in the zat6-1 mutant, suggesting that GSH1 is a key target of ZAT6. Taken together, our data provide evidence that ZAT6 coordinately activates PC-synthesis related gene expression and directly targets GSH1 to positively regulate Cd accumulation and tolerance in Arabidopsis.
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