Abstract
Sufficient supply of potassium (K) can alleviate the adverse effects of excess sodium (Na) on plant growth. However, it remains unclear if such a beneficial function is related to regulation of root growth and/or expression of K/Na transporters. Herein we report the responses of a rice cultivar, which was pretreated with normal nutrient solution for 1 month, to three levels of Na (0, 25, and 100 mM) without or with supply of K for 9 days. High Na (100 mM) significantly decreased plant growth, root activity, and total K uptake, and increased biomass ratio of roots to shoots. Short-term removal of K supply (9 days) did not affect root morphology and biomass ratio of roots to shoots, but decreased root activity of seedlings grown in high Na solution. K deficiency increased uptake of Na and transport of K from roots to shoots. Moreover, expression of OsHAK1, a putative K transporter gene, was upregulated by low Na (25 mM) and downregulated by high Na (100 mM) in roots. In leaves, its expression was suppressed by the Na treatments when K supply was maintained. Expression of OsHKT2;1, which encodes a protein that acts mainly as a Na transporter, was downregulated by high Na, but was enhanced by K deficiency both in roots and leaves. Expression of five other putative K/Na transporter or Na+/H+ genes, OsHKT1;1, OsHKT1;2, OsHKT2;3, OsNHX1, and OsSOS1, was not affected by the treatments. The results suggest that OsHAK1 and OsHKT2;1 were involved in the interactive effects of K and Na on their uptake and distribution in rice.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by a special fund of the Key Laboratory of Marine Biology in Jiangsu Province. We thank Dr. Shubin Sun and Dr. Xiaorong Fan for technical support and Prof. Uzi Kafkafi from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for valuable discussion and comments.
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Wu, Y., Hu, Y. & Xu, G. Interactive effects of potassium and sodium on root growth and expression of K/Na transporter genes in rice. Plant Growth Regul 57, 271–280 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-008-9345-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-008-9345-9