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The novel Na+/H+ antiporter gene SpNHX1 from Sesuvium portulacastrum confers enhanced salt tolerance to transgenic yeast

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Abstract

The plant Na+/H+ antiporter (NHX) plays a significant role in cellular ion homeostasis. Herein, an Na+/H+ antiporter gene, SpNHX1 from the Sesuvium portulacastrum plant, was obtained by homology-cloning method. The SpNHX1 gene contains 2113 bp with an open-reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 554 amino acid residues with an estimated molecular mass of 61.27 kDa and an isoelectric point of 7.24. The amino acid sequences of SpNHX1 shared a high similarity with Arabidopsis thaliana AtNHX1 (75.81%), AtNHX2 (77.12%) and Oryza sativa OsNHX1 (73.10%). SpNHX1 contains an amiloride-binding region (FFIYLLPPI), which is a highly-conserved domain in plant Na+/H+ antiporters. RT-PCR (reverse transcriptional PCR) analysis showed that the SpNHX1 gene had a high expression level in roots compared to other tissues under normal conditions. The qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time PCR) results indicated that NaCl treatment induced the expression of SpNHX1 gene in the roots, but its transcriptional levels were not influenced by the ABA, PEG, H2O2, heat (42 °C) or cold (4 °C) stresses. The growth of yeast cells expressing SpNHX1 was better than the non-transgenic control cells in the presence of 30 mM NaCl, 0.4 M KCl, or 0.5 mM LiCl. Furthermore, transgenic yeast cells with SpNHX1 accumulated more Na+ relative to control cells under salinity stress. These results suggested that SpNHX1 was a key determinant in the salt-stress response in Sesuvium portulacastrum.

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Acknowledgements

We thank American Journal Experts (AJE) for English language editing. This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (31260218, 31660253), the Fundamental Scientific Research Funds for Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS-1630052014004) and the Scientific and Technological Foundation of Hainan Province (HNGDhs201502).

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  1. Yang Zhou, Chenglong Yang, and Yanping Hu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Resources of Tropical Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, 571101, China

    Yang Zhou, Chenglong Yang, Ruimei Li, Shaoping Fu & Jianchun Guo

  2. Hainan Key Laboratory for Biotechnology of Salt Tolerant Corps, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China

    Yang Zhou, Xiaochang Yin & Xingyu Jiang

  3. The Institute of Vegetables, Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, 571100, China

    Yanping Hu & Baibi Zhu

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  1. Yang Zhou
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Correspondence to Jianchun Guo or Xingyu Jiang.

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Zhou, Y., Yang, C., Hu, Y. et al. The novel Na+/H+ antiporter gene SpNHX1 from Sesuvium portulacastrum confers enhanced salt tolerance to transgenic yeast. Acta Physiol Plant 40, 61 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-018-2631-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-018-2631-x

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