Functional Analysis Of A Sodium Transport Gene Expressed In Model And Crop Species

Abstract

Development of salinity tolerance in crop plants has remained elusive due to the multi-genic nature of the trait and its physiological complexity. Two major problems hampering efforts to produce salt-tolerant plants through expression of transgenes include: 1. Cell-types must respond individually to salt stress to minimise the amount of Na+ delivered to the shoot; and 2. Transgenes are typically expressed in plants constitutively, which is likely to be counter-productive to developing salt tolerance and means, in low-stress conditions, expensive metabolic processes may be active, thus reducing photosynthate available for grain production. To address these issues we have utilised GAL4 enhancer trap lines, inducible gene expression systems and Na+ transporter genes to develop high throughput approaches aimed at developing transgenic plants with altered levels of Na+ tolerance.