Novel Folate Binding Protein in Arabidopsis Expressed during Salicylic Acid-Induced Folate Accumulation.

Increasing the quantity of natural folates in plant foods is recently gaining significant interest, owing to their
acute deficiencies in various populations. This study observed that foliar salicylic acid treatment enhanced the accumulation of
folates in Arabidopsis, which correlated with the increase in a folate binding protein (FBP) and the expression of mRNA of a
putative folate binding protein At5G27830. A protein band corresponding to ∼43 kDa was observed after resolving the affinitypurified
protein on SDS-PAGE, and the partial amino acid sequence indicated that the protein is indeed At5G27830. Docking
studies performed with At5G27830 confirmed specific binding of folic acid to predicted site. Heterologous expression of
At5G27830 in the yeast resulted in significant uptake and accumulation of folic acid in cells. This novel study of a plant FBP will
be useful for folate metabolic engineering of a wide range of crops.