Plant Growth Regulation

, Volume 75, Issue 3, pp 605–614 | Cite as

Identification, functional characterization, and expression pattern of a NaCl-inducible vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter in chicory (Cichorium intybus L.)

  • Mingxiang Liang
  • Manman Lin
  • Zhongyuan Lin
  • Long Zhao
  • Gengmao Zhao
  • Qing Li
  • Xiangzhen Yin
Original paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Na+/H+ antiporters (NHXs) primarily catalyze the exchange of Na+ for H+ across vacuole membranes. A novel vacuolar Na+/H+ exchanger, CiNHX1, was cloned from chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), which contains an open reading frame of 1,644 bp. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that CiNHX shared a great degree of similarity with reported class-I NHX sequences within predicted transmembrane segments and an amiloride-binding domain. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that salt stress, unlike abscisic acid (ABA) or osmotic stress, greatly induced the expression of CiNHX1, suggesting that CiNHX1 is mainly involved in ABA-independent stress signaling pathways. The fact that chicory accumulated more Na+ compared to untreated plants under salt stress was concordant to the higher levels of CiNHX mRNA under salinity. A heterologous expression of CiNHX1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant suggested that CiNHX1 could mimic the function of the endogenous NHX1 protein. Subcellular localization assay revealed that CiNHX1 was a tonoplast membrane-localized protein. These results suggested that CiNHX1 plays a critical role in chicory’s tolerance to salinity stress.

Keywords

Abiotic stress Cichorium intybus NHX Subcellular localization 

Abbreviations

NHXs

Na+/H+ antiporters

SOS1

Salt-Overly Sensitive 1

CPA1

Cation/proton antiporter 1

RWC

Relative water content

GFP

Green fluorescent protein

FW

Fresh weight

DW

Dry weight

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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank Journalexperts Company and Kathleen Farquharson for valuable comments on the manuscript revision. We thank Dr Huazhong Shi (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University) and Dr Jiafu Jiang (College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University) for providing yeast strain ena1 nhx1. This research was supported by Grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863”Program, 2011AA100209), the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120097120015), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KYZ201206), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (RAPD Program, 809001), and the Scientific Research Foundation of the State Human Resource Ministry.

Supplementary material

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Supplementary material 4 (DOC 36 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Mingxiang Liang
    • 1
    • 2
  • Manman Lin
    • 1
    • 2
  • Zhongyuan Lin
    • 1
    • 2
  • Long Zhao
    • 1
    • 2
  • Gengmao Zhao
    • 1
    • 2
  • Qing Li
    • 1
  • Xiangzhen Yin
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.College of Resources and Environmental SciencesNanjing Agricultural UniversityNanjingChina
  2. 2.Jiangsu Key Lab of Marine BiologyNanjingChina

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