Regulation of Na+ and K+ homeostasis in plants: towards improved salt stress tolerance in crop plants

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida,Diego M.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Oliveira,M. Margarida, Saibo,Nelson J. M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Genetics and Molecular Biology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-47572017000200326
• topic: Salinity; sodium; potassium; proton pumps; ion transporters

Abstract Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress that results in considerable crop yield losses worldwide. However, some plant genotypes show a high tolerance to soil salinity, as they manage to maintain a high K+/Na+ ratio in the cytosol, in contrast to salt stress susceptible genotypes. Although, different plant genotypes show different salt tolerance mechanisms, they all rely on the regulation and function of K+ and Na+ transporters and H+ pumps, which generate the driving force for K+ and Na+ transport. In this review we will introduce salt stress responses in plants and summarize the current knowledge about the most important ion transporters that facilitate intra- and intercellular K+ and Na+ homeostasis in these organisms. We will describe and discuss the regulation and function of the H+-ATPases, H+-PPases, SOS1, HKTs, and NHXs, including the specific tissues where they work and their response to salt stress.