Salt Tolerance Conferred by Overexpression of a Vacuolar Na + /H + Antiport in Arabidopsis
Maris P. Apse, Gilad S. Aharon, Wayne A. Snedden, Eduardo Blumwald- Multidisciplinary
Agricultural productivity is severely affected by soil salinity. One possible mechanism by which plants could survive salt stress is to compartmentalize sodium ions away from the cytosol. Overexpression of a vacuolar Na + /H + antiport from Arabidopsis thaliana in Arabidopsis plants promotes sustained growth and development in soil watered with up to 200 millimolar sodium chloride. This salinity tolerance was correlated with higher-than-normal levels of AtNHX1 transcripts, protein, and vacuolar Na + /H + (sodium/proton) antiport activity. These results demonstrate the feasibility of engineering salt tolerance in plants.