Quantitative gene expression analysis of some sodium ion transporters under salinity stress in Aeluropus littoralis

Plant sodium transporters activity is one of the most important salt tolerance mechanisms to keep normal status of cytosolic sodium content. In the present study, expression pattern of genes encoding Na+/H+ antiporters in the plasma membrane (SOS1 gene), vacuolar membrane (NHX1 gene) and H+-ATPase pump (VHA gene) in Aeluropus littoralis under different treatments of NaCl was measured by the semi-quantitative RT-PCR method. Our results indicated that root and shoot sodium contents were increased along with increasing salinity pressure. In response to 200 and 400 mM NaCl, mRNA level of SOS1 and NHX1 was increased in the shoot and root tissues, while VHA transcripts were increased only under 400 mM of NaCl. Transcripts of VHA-c and NHX1 in root were higher than shoot in all treatments. In general, our results indicated that transcriptional level of SOS1, and NHX1 genes induced in parallel with VHA expression may be involved in controlling cytosolic Na+ concentration in A. littoralis.