Exogenously applied 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) ameliorates detrimental effects of salinity by reducing K+ efflux via depolarization-activated K+ channels

This study has investigated mechanisms conferring beneficial effects of exogenous application of 24-epibrassinolides (EBL) on plant growth and performance under saline conditions. Barley seedlings treated with 0.25 mg lK^-1 EBL showed significant improvements in root hair length, shoot length, shoot fresh weight and relative water content when grown in the presence of 150mM NaCl in the growth medium. In addition, EBL treatment significantly decreased the Na⁺ content in both shoots (by approximately 50%) and roots. Electrophysiological experiments revealed that pre-treatment with EBL for 1 and 24 h suppressed or completely prevented the NaCl-induced K⁺ leak in the elongation zone of barley roots, but did not affect root sensitivity to oxidative stress. Further experiments using Arabidopsis loss-of-function gork1-1 (lacking functional depolarization-activated outward-rectifying K⁺ channels in the root epidermal cells) and akt1 (lacking inward-rectifying K⁺ uptake channel) mutants showed that NaCl-induced K⁺ loss in the elongation zone of roots was reduced by EBL pre-treatment 50- to 100-fold in wild-type Col-0 and akt1, but only 10-fold in the gork1-1 mutant. At the same time, EBL treatment shifted vanadate-sensitive H⁺ flux towards net efflux. Taken together, these data indicate that exogenous application of EBL effectively improves plant salinity tolerance by prevention of K⁺ loss via regulating depolarization-activated K⁺ channels.