Abstract
Alkali stress is an important agricultural problem that affects plant metabolism, specifically root physiology. In this study, using two rice cultivars differing in alkali resistance, we investigated the physiological and molecular responses of rice plants to alkali stress. Compared to the alkali-sensitive cultivar (SC), the alkali-tolerant cultivar (TC) maintained higher photosynthesis and root system activity under alkali stress. Correspondingly, the Na+ content in its shoots was much lower, and the contents of mineral ions (e.g., K+, NO3 −, and H2PO4 −) in its roots was higher than those of the SC. These data showed that the metabolic regulation of roots might play a central role in rice alkali tolerance. Gene expression differences between the cultivars were much greater in roots than in shoots. In roots, 46.5% (20 of 43) of selected genes indicated over fivefold expression differences between cultivars under alkali stress. The TC had higher root system activity that might protect shoots from Na+ injury and maintain normal metabolic processes. During adaptation of TC to alkali stress, OsSOS1 (salt overly sensitive protein 1) may mediate Na+ exclusion from shoots or roots. Under alkali stress, SC could accumulate Na+ up to toxic concentrations due to relatively low expression of OsSOS1 in shoots. It possibly harmed chloroplasts and influenced photorespiration processes, thus reducing NH4 + production from photorespiration. Under alkali stress, TC was able to maintain normal nitrogen metabolism, which might be important for resisting alkali stress.
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Abbreviations
- AKT:
-
low affinity K+ transporter
- AS:
-
asparagine synthetase
- AST:
-
alkali stress treatment
- GDH:
-
glutamate dehydrogenase
- GOGAT:
-
glutamate synthase
- GS:
-
glutamine synthetase
- HAK:
-
KUP/HAK/KT K+ transporter
- HKT:
-
high affinity K+ transporter
- NHX:
-
Na+/H+ exchanger
- NiR:
-
nitrite reductase
- NR:
-
nitrate reductase
- OA:
-
organic acid
- P5CS:
-
δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase
- ProDH:
-
proline dehydrogenase
- SC:
-
alkali-sensitive cultivar
- SOS:
-
salt overly sensitive
- SST:
-
salt stress treatment
- TC:
-
alkali-tolerant cultivar
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Acknowledgements: This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (31300192), Project of the Jilin Provincial Government (No. 20106023), and Basic Research Project by Jilin Provincial Government (No. 20090567). We thank International Science Editing (ISE) for language editing.
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Wang, H., Lin, X., Cao, S. et al. Alkali tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L.): growth, photosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism, and ion homeostasis. Photosynthetica 53, 55–65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0079-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0079-4