ZmCIPK21, A Maize CBL-Interacting Kinase, Enhances Salt Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Xunji Chen²  Quansheng Huang¹  Fan Zhang²  Bo Wang²  Jianhua Wang² 

[1] Institute of Nuclear Technology and Biotechnology, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 403 Nanchang Road, Urumqi 830091, China; E-Mail:;College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Beijing 100094, China; E-Mails:

关键词: CIPK;    stress;    salt tolerance;    Arabidopsis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms150814819

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Salt stress represents an increasing threat to crop growth and yield in saline soil. In this study, we identified a maize calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase (CIPK), ZmCIPK21, which was primarily localized in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of cells and displayed enhanced expression under salt stress. Over-expression of ZmCIPK21 in wild-type Arabidopsis plants increased their tolerance to salt, as supported by the longer root lengths and improved growth. The downstream stress-response genes, including dehydration-responsive element-binding (DREB) genes were also activated in transgenic plants over-expressing ZmCIPK21. In addition, introduction of the transgenic ZmCIPK21 gene into the Arabidopsis mutant cipk1-2 rescued the salt-sensitive phenotype under high salt stress. Measurement of Na⁺ and K⁺ content in transgenic plants showed that over-expression of ZmCIPK21 decreased accumulation of Na⁺ and allowed retention of relatively high levels of K⁺, thereby enhancing plant tolerance to salt conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.