Salinity is a global problem affecting agriculture that results in an estimated US$27 billion loss in revenue per year. Overexpression of vacuolar ATPase subunits has been shown to be beneficial in improving plant performance under saline conditions. Most studies, however, have not shown whether overexpression of genes encoding ATPase subunits results in improvements in grain yield, and have not investigated the physiological mechanisms behind the improvement in plant growth. In this study, we constitutively expressed Arabidopsis Vacuolar ATPase subunit C (AtVHA-C) in barley. Transgenic plants were assessed for agronomical and physiological characteristics, such as fresh and dry biomass, leaf pigment content, stomatal conductance, grain yield, and leaf Na⁺ and K⁺ concentration, when grown in either 0 or 300 mM NaCl. When compared with non-transformed barley, AtVHA-C expressing barley lines had a smaller reduction in both biomass and grain yield under salinity stress. The transgenic lines accumulated Na⁺ and K⁺ in leaves for osmotic adjustment. This in turn saves energy consumed in the synthesis of organic osmolytes that otherwise would be needed for osmotic adjustment.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	salinity, osmotic adjustment, stress, organic osmolytes, potassium, salinity stress tolerance, sodium, vacuolar sequestration
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Plant biology
Research Field:	Plant physiology
Objective Division:	Plant Production and Plant Primary Products
Objective Group:	Grains and seeds
Objective Field:	Barley
UTAS Author:	Adem, GD (Mr Getnet Adem)
UTAS Author:	Wang, F (Miss Feifei Wang)
UTAS Author:	Zhou, M (Professor Meixue Zhou)
UTAS Author:	Bowman, JP (Associate Professor John Bowman)
UTAS Author:	Shabala, SN (Professor Sergey Shabala)
ID Code:	122882
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	9
Deposited By:	Agriculture and Food Systems
Deposited On:	2017-12-05
Last Modified:	2018-06-06
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