Cloning and expression of the iron -storage gene, CaFer1, OF Cicer arietinum
Student name: Ms Prashasti
Guide: Dr. Ramakrishnan Sitaraman
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: National Institute of Plant Genome Research
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Niranjan Chakraborty
Abstract: Ferritins are a ubiquitous family of protein found in bacteria, plants and animals.
Ferritin is basically an iron-storage protein having a nanocage like structure. The major
function of ferritin is to sequester iron and store it in a safe bioavailable form, releasing it when
required. Ferritin plays a central role in maintaining the cellular iron homeostasis and also in
controlling the iron-oxygen chemistry, which can pose a danger to the cells by generating
harmful radicals. Among plants, ferritins have been isolated and characterized from many
species, including Arabidopsis thaliana, Zea mays, Glycine max, and Coffea arabica. The plant
ferritins share some important structural and functional similarities with their animal
counterparts, though differences also exist, the major ones being their cellular localization and
regulatory mechanisms. Recently, ferritin has been implicated as a dehydration-responsive gene
in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). It is suggested that this up regulation might be due to the role
that ferritin plays in protecting the cell against oxidative damage. The project involves the
cloning of the corresponding gene, CaFer1, from chickpea and studying its cellular localization
and overexpressing the ferritin protein.
Keywords: ferritin, iron, Cicer arietinum, dehydration-responsive, CaFer1
