Yutao Zou, Nora Gigli-Bisceglia, Eva van Zelm, Pinelopi Kokkinopoulou, Magdalena M Julkowska, Maarten Besten, Thu-Phuong Nguyen, Hongfei Li, Jasper Lamers, Thijs de Zeeuw, Joram A Dongus, Yuxiao Zeng, Yu Cheng, Iko T Koevoets, Bodil Jørgensen, Marcel Giesbers, Jelmer Vroom, Tijs Ketelaar, Bent Larsen Petersen, Timo Engelsdorf, Joris Sprakel, Yanxia Zhang, Christa Testerink
Soil salinity is a major contributor to crop yield losses. To improve our understanding of root responses to salinity, we developed and exploited a real-time salt-induced tilting assay. This assay follows root growth upon both gravitropic and salt challenges, revealing that root bending upon tilting is modulated by Na+ ions, but not by osmotic stress. Next, we measured this salt-specific response in 345 natural Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accessions and discovered a genetic locus, encoding the cell wall-modifying enzyme EXTENSIN ARABINOSE DEFICIENT TRANSFERASE (ExAD) that is associated with root bending in the presence of NaCl (hereafter salt)...
May 1, 2024: Plant Cell