Two NHX‐type transporters from Helianthus tuberosus improve the tolerance of rice to salinity and nutrient deficiency stress |
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| Authors: | Yang Zeng Qing Li Haiya Wang Jianliang Zhang Jia Du Huimin Feng Eduardo Blumwald Ling Yu Guohua Xu |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China;2. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization in Low‐Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China;3. Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA |
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| Abstract: | The NHX‐type cation/H+ transporters in plants have been shown to mediate Na+(K+)/H+ exchange for salinity tolerance and K+ homoeostasis. In this study, we identified and characterized two NHX homologues, HtNHX1 and HtNHX2 from an infertile and salinity tolerant species Helianthus tuberosus (cv. Nanyu No. 1). HtNHX1 and HtNHX2 share identical 5′‐ and 3′‐UTR and coding regions, except for a 342‐bp segment encoding 114 amino acids (L272 to Q385) which is absent in HtNHX2. Both hydroponics and soil culture experiments showed that the expression of HtNHX1 or HtNHX2 improved the rice tolerance to salinity. Expression of HtNHX2, but not HtNHX1, increased rice grain yield, harvest index, total nutrient uptake under K+‐limited salt‐stress or general nutrient deficiency conditions. The results provide a novel insight into NHX function in plant mineral nutrition. |
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| Keywords: |
Helianthus tuberosus
NHX‐type transporters nutrient deficiency potassium rice salt stress |
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