Conserved vacuolar H+-ATPase subunit B1 improves salt stress tolerance in apple calli and tomato plants

•Phylogenetic analysis of the apple and Arabidopsis V-ATPase subunit genes.•Apple V-ATPase subunit gene MdVHA-B1 was constitutive expression in various tissues.•Apple V-ATPase subunit gene MdVHA-B1 was involved in salt stress response.•MdVHA-B1 interacts with MdSOS2L1.•Ectopic expression of MdVHA-B1 confers salt tolerance in tomato.

Vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-H+-ATPase) is highly conserved, multisubunit proton pumps that play key roles in adaptation to abiotic stress in plants. Function of apple V-ATPase subunit B1 (MdVHA-B1) has been identified in drought tolerance, however, it remains unclear whether MdVHA-B1 is involved in salt tolerance. In this work, we characterized the function of MdVHA-B1 gene in salt stress response. GUS and Western blotting assays showed that MdVHA-B1 was highly induced by salt stress. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays demonstrated that MdVHA-B1 interacts with MdSOS2L1, a Arabidopsis SOS2-like protein kinase, in apple. Compared with wild-type (WT) apple calli, V-ATPase activities in the transgenic calli were significantly enhanced under salt stress condition. Furthermore, Na+ and K+ were accumulated much higher in transgenic tomato plants than the WT control. These results suggest that MdVHA-B1 may confer salt tolerance through salt overly sensitive (SOS) signal pathway in apple to regulate the ion balance.