Abstract
Authors are focusing on aquaporins of barley. Because barley shows higher drought and salt tolerance than rice, the molecular strategy of water usage and regulation of water transport in Gramineae can be revealed from the comparative study of aquaporins between barley and rice. To date, it was confirmed that a barely aquaporin, HvPIP2;1, encoded water channel activity (1), raised salt sensitivity (2), and increased CO2 permeability (3). Results (2) and (3) were observed in the experiments using transgenic rice plants over-expressing HvPIP2;1. Result (3) suggested that aquaporin activity may regulate CO2 assimilation rate. At the present, authors are analyzing the expression and function of all aquaporins involved in barely and rice.
