title: Assessment of the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter (NHX1) transcriptional changes inLeptochloa fuscaL. in response to salt and cadmium stresses.
abstract: Sodium/proton exchangers (NHX) are key players in plant responses to salinity and have a central role in establishing ion homeostasis. NHXs can be localized in tonoplast or plasma membranes, where they exchange sodium ions for protons, resulting in the removal of ions from the cytosol into vacuole or extracellular spaces. In the present study, the expression pattern of the gene encoding Na+/H+ antiporter in the vacuolarmembrane (NHX1 gene) inLeptochloa fusca(Kallar grass) was measured by a semi- quantitative RT-PCR method under different treatments of NaCl and CdCl2. Results indicated that NaCl positively affected expression levels ofLfNHX1, and that the amount ofLfNHX1 mRNA increased in conjunction with the rise of salinity pressure, This finding suggests that vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter might play an important role in the salt tolerance ability of kallar grass. The results also showed that cadmium exposure significantly modulated the mRNA expression of theLfNHX1 gene, suggesting that cadmium exposure disturbed Na+ homeostasis across the tonoplast and decreased the salt tolerance ability of kallar grass.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University ofKerman, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Adabnejad
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University ofKerman, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid Reza
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Kavousi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University ofKerman, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Iraj
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tavassolian
keywords: Cadmium; Kallar grass; NHX1; Salt stress; Semi-quantitative RT-PCR