Researchers at Waseda University have identified a motor protein that plays a key role in how plants cope with salty soils.
They found that Arabidopsis thaliana myosin XI-1, part of the myosin XI family, significantly regulates adaptation to salt stress by helping to control intracellular sodium ion homeostasis.
Salt stress is one of the most damaging abiotic pressures on crops, reducing growth, productivity and yields worldwide. High sodium levels disrupt protein synthesis, photosynthesis, nutrient balance and enzyme activity, causing long term damage to plant tissues.
Myosin XI proteins are best known for driving intracellular trafficking and organelle movement in plant cells, but their role in stress responses has been unclear.
The Waseda team examined three key members, AtXI-K, AtXI-2 and AtXI-1, and found their expression changed under salt stress conditions.
Crucially, only the loss of AtXI-1 increased salt tolerance compared with wild type plants, with both the single atxi-1 mutant and a triple mutant showing improved performance. These lines accumulated less sodium and maintained higher chlorophyll and proline under salt stress, although the triple mutant suffered poor germination, pointing to stage specific effects.
Liu explained: “This research was driven by the goal of understanding how plants maintain cellular organization under extreme environmental stress. While motor proteins such as myosin XI have been hypothesized to regulate ion balance, this possibility has remained largely unexplored.”
The study concludes that myosin XI-1 is a major regulator of salt tolerance via sodium homeostasis, highlighting functional diversification within the myosin XI family.
The findings open up a new molecular target for breeding or engineering salt tolerant crops that can support sustainable agriculture in saline affected regions.
Plants that can live in salty soil appeared first on Energy Live News.