Browsing by Author "Lu, Yanjun"

During a 30-day period of increasing salinity, we examined the effects of NaCl on leaf H+-ATPase and salinity tolerance in 1-year-old plants of Populus euphratica Oliv. (salt resistant) and P. popularis 35-44 (P. popularis) (salt sensitive). Electron probe X-ray microanalysis of leaf mesophyll revealed that P. euphratica had a higher ability to retain lower NaCl concentrations in the cytoplasm, as compared to P. popularis. The sustained activity of H+ pumps (by cytochemical staining) in salinised P. euphratica suggests a role in energising salt transport through the plasma membrane (PM) and tonoplast. Salt-induced alterations of leaf respiration, ATP content and expression of PM H+-ATPase were compared between the two species. Results show that P. euphratica retained a constant respiratory rate, ATP production and protein abundance of PM H+-ATPase (by Western blotting) in salt-stressed plants. P. euphratica was able to maintain a comparatively high capacity of ATP hydrolysis and H+ pumping during prolonged salt exposure. By contrast, the activity and expression of PM H+-ATPase were markedly decreased in P. popularis leaves in response to salt stress. Furthermore, NaCl-stressed P. popularis plants showed a marked decline of respiration (70%) and ATP production (66%) on day 30. We conclude that the inability of P. popularis to transport salt to the apoplast and vacuole was partly due to the decreased activity of H+ pumps. As a consequence, cytosolic ion concentrations were observed to be comparatively high for an extended period of time, so that cell metabolism, in particular respiration, was disrupted in P. popularis leaves.

Populus euphratica is a salt-tolerant tree species that develops leaf succulence after a prolonged period of salinity stress. In the present study, a putative xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase gene (PeXTH) from P. euphratica was isolated and transferred to tobacco plants. PeXTH localized exclusively to the endoplasmic reticulum and cell wall. Plants overexpressing PeXTH were more salt tolerant than wild-type tobacco with respect to root and leaf growth, and survival. The increased capacity for salt tolerance was due mainly to the anatomical and physiological alterations caused by PeXTH overexpression. Compared with the wild type, PeXTH-transgenic plants contained 36% higher water content per unit area and 39% higher ratio of fresh weight to dry weight, a hallmark of leaf succulence. However, the increased water storage in the leaves in PeXTH-transgenic plants was not accompanied by greater leaf thickness but was due to highly packed palisade parenchyma cells and fewer intercellular air spaces between mesophyll cells. In addition to the salt dilution effect in response to NaCl, these anatomical changes increased leaf water-retaining capacity, which lowered the increase of salt concentration in the succulent tissues and mesophyll cells. Moreover, the increased number of mesophyll cells reduced the intercellular air space, which improved carbon economy and resulted in a 47–78% greater net photosynthesis under control and salt treatments (100–150mM NaCl). Taken together, the results indicate that PeXTH overexpression enhanced salt tolerance by the development of succulent leaves in tobacco plants without swelling.