The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of the antibiotic kanamycin and the chelator citrate on growth and metal uptake of Arabidopsis plants, especially under low iron availability. Previous studies have indicated that metal uptake in the presence of kanamycin was highly modulated by the presence of citrate. However these studies were conducted under normal levels of iron and it is not known to what degree kanamycin would affect plants grown under low levels of iron. In this study control and kanamycin sensitive WBC19 mutant seedlings were grown on MS media that was supplemented with 100 uM citrate and contained half the normal amount of iron. The media either contained no kanamycin or kanamycin at 50 mg/l. Based on our current understanding of metal transport as affected by kanamycin, it is predicted that in the presence of kanamycin, iron uptake would decrease in the control and WBC19 mutant. In addition, zinc uptake in the WBC19 mutant would be severely reduced. Our results would ultimately help us incorporate the effect of iron levels on or understanding of metal uptake.
