| Summary: | Cadmium pollution threatens food safety and security by causing health issues and reducing farmland availability. Engineering genetic changes in crop plants to lower Cd accumulation can be a cost-effective approach to address this problem. Previously, we reported that a rice line, 2B, which expresses a truncated version of <i>OsO3L2</i> had reduced Cd accumulation throughout the plant, including in seed. However, downstream events caused by expression of this gene were not known. In this study, RNA-seq was used to identify differentially expressed genes between the wild type and 2B rice with or without Cd treatment, leading to the study of an <i>ABC</i> transporter gene, <i>OsABCG48</i> (ATP-Binding Cassette transporter G family member 48). Heterologous expression of <i>OsABCG48</i> conferred tolerance to Cd in <i>Schizosaccharomyces pombe</i>, <i>Arabidopsis</i> and rice. Moreover, overexpressing <i>OsABCG48</i> in rice lowered root Cd accumulation that was associated with more extensive lateral root development. These data suggest that <i>OsABCG48</i> might have applications for engineering low-Cd rice.
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