Nature Genetics
37, 1141 - 1146 (2005)
Published online: 11 September 2005; | doi:10.1038/ng1643
A rice quantitative trait locus for salt tolerance encodes a sodium transporterZhong-Hai Ren1, 2, 6, Ji-Ping Gao1, 2, 6, Le-Gong Li3, 6, Xiu-Ling Cai1, Wei Huang1, 2, Dai-Yin Chao1, 2, Mei-Zhen Zhu1, Zong-Yang Wang1, Sheng Luan3, 4
& Hong-Xuan Lin1, 4, 51
National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China. 2
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100039, China. 3
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. 4
Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences−UC Berkeley Center for Molecular Life Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China. 5
SHARF Laboratory, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. 6
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence should be addressed to Hong-Xuan Lin hxlin@sibs.ac.cn or Sheng Luan sluan@nature.berkeley.edu Many important agronomic traits in crop plants, including stress tolerance, are complex traits controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Isolation of these QTLs holds great promise to improve world agriculture but is a challenging task. We previously mapped a rice QTL, SKC1, that maintained K+ homeostasis in the salt-tolerant variety under salt stress1, consistent with the earlier finding that K+ homeostasis is important in salt tolerance2,
3. To understand the molecular basis of this QTL, we isolated the SKC1 gene by map-based cloning and found that it encoded a member of HKT-type transporters. SKC1 is preferentially expressed in the parenchyma cells surrounding the xylem vessels. Voltage-clamp analysis showed that SKC1 protein functions as a Na+-selective transporter. Physiological analysis suggested that SKC1 is involved in regulating K+/Na+ homeostasis under salt stress, providing a potential tool for improving salt tolerance in crops.
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