Role of Na+ manipulating genes in Phragmites australis adaptation to different habitats

Document Type : Original articles

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Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Damietta University

Abstract

Phragmites australis adapts to different habitats and tolerate drought and/or salt stress. In the present study, P. australis was collected from mesophytic, brackish water, sand dune, fresh water and salt marsh habitats. The leaf fresh weight was optimum in mesophytic habitats and it was negatively affected by stress found in other habitats. Water content followed the same trend for the fresh weight. The decrease in water content could be a tolerance strategy. Na+ content was higher in roots than in leaves for all habitats. In contrast, K+ content was higher in leaves than in roots. K+/Na+ ratio was higher than unity in leaves for all habitats even within roots collected from salt marsh. Except for leaves collected from mesophytic habitats, K+/Na+ ratio was less than one (1.1). NHX1 expression level was higher in roots than that in leaves suggesting that this plant may accumulate Na+ inside root vacuoles to restrict its movement to shoot. However, the transcript level of SOS1 was not detected in any root collected from different habitats. Therefore, this reed may have other mechanisms for Na+ extrusion. However, SOS1 transcript level was detected in leaves collected from different habitats suggesting that SOS1 could play different roles in P. australis tolerance.

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