Abstract
Reed plants (Phragmites australis T.) are perennial grasses growing not only in fresh and brackish water areas but also in arid and salinity regions. Reed plants growing on a riverside (Utsunomiya) were found to be damaged by 150mM NaCl, whereas desert plants (Nanpi, Enchi) were tolerant. Under salt stress, the contents of Na+ and K+ differed in salt-tolerant reed plants and sensitive plants. Especially, the K+/Na+ ratio of leaves in the Nanpi plants was much higher than the Utsunomiya plants. These results suggest that salt-tolerant reed plants have efficient mechanisms for salt tolerance include high selective K+ uptake and exclusion of Na+.
In this study, we isolated cDNAs of HAK and HKT K+ transporter from three ecotypes of reed plants, and compared their function.
After cloning of full length cDNAs, we introduced each transporter into the yeast, which were deleted original K+ transporter, and analyzed ion uptake activities.
