A gain-of-function mutation in the Arabidopsis pleiotropic drug resistance transporter PDR9 confers resistance to auxinic herbicides

Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) contains 15 genes encoding members of the pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR) family of ATP-binding cassette transporters. These proteins have been speculated to be involved in the detoxification of xenobiotics, however, little experimental support of this hypothesis has been obtained to date. Here we report our characterization of the Arabidopsis PDR9 gene. We isolated a semidominant, gain-of-function mutant, designated pdr9-1, that exhibits increased tolerance to the auxinic herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Reciprocally, loss-of-function mutations in PDR9 confer 2,4-D hypersensitivity. This altered auxin sensitivity defect of pdr9 mutants is specific for 2,4-D and closely related compounds as these mutants respond normally to the endogenous auxins indole-3-acetic acid and indole-butyric acid. We demonstrate that 2,4-D, but not indole-3-acetic acid transport is affected by mutations in pdr9, suggesting that the PDR9 transporter specifically effluxes 2,4-D out of plant cells without affecting endogenous auxin transport. The semidominant pdr9-1 mutation affects an extremely highly conserved domain present in all known plant PDR transporters. The single amino acid change results in increased PDR9 abundance and provides a novel approach for elucidating the function of plant PDR proteins.