Abstract
The ionic transport systems function to maintain the ionic homeostasis in the cells under the salt stress. Sodium ions were removed from the cytoplasm by Na+/H+ antiporters localized on tonoplasts and plasmamembranes. We hardly know about intercellular behavior of chloride ions, a counter ion for Na+, under the high salt condition.
We isolated two cDNA clones for the rice chloride channel genes, OsCLC-1 and -2, and found genomic sequence in the rice genome database. Both genes have six introns and the positions of insertion were resembled to the case of AtCLC-a, -b and -c. OsCLC-1 and -2 could partially substitute for GEF1 protein, the sole chloride channel in yeast, that is, restored the growth of a strain disrupted this gene. OsCLC-1 and -2 suppressed the several phenotypes of the gef1 mutant. However, the complementation patterns were different from the case of AtCLC-d and -d.
