Overexpression of From Halophyte Plant Enhances Tolerance to Salt Stress in .

The Salt Overly Sensitive (SOS) signaling pathway is key in responding to salt stress in plants. , a central factor in this pathway, has been studied in non-halophytes such as and rice, but has so far not been reported in the halophyte . In order to better understand how acquires its tolerance for a high salt environment, here, the was cloned from , phylogenetic analyses showed that NtSOS2 is homologous to the SOS2 of and rice. Gene expression profile analysis showed that localizes to the cytoplasm and cell membrane and it can be induced by salt stress. Transgenesis experiments showed that exogenous expression of reduces leaf mortality and improves the germination rate, biomass and root growth of under salt stress. Also, exogenous expression of affected the expression of ion transporter-related genes and can rescue the phenotype of under salt stress. All these results revealed that plays an important role in plant salt stress tolerance. Our findings will be of great significance to further understand the mechanism of salt tolerance and to develop and utilize molecular knowledge gained from halophytes to improve the ecological environment.