Promotion of growth and upregulation of thylakoid membrane proteins in the halophyte Salicornia bigelovii Torr. under saline conditions

Abstract

Salicornia bigelovii is an unusually salt-tolerant plant species and is able to continue to photosynthesize and grow in saline conditions. There is an interest in understanding the mechanisms of this salt tolerance. In this study, S. bigelovii plants grown under 400 mM NaCl had higher growth and higher photosynthetic capacity than those not grown with salt. The intensities of the fluorescence emission peaks in the thylakoid membrane spectra in the salt treatment were higher than in the control. PSII and PSI peaks of the control were blue-shifted, indicating that salt deficiency affects energy transfer and structural stability in PSII and PSI. Both SDS-PAGE and western blot illustrated that the PSI proteins PsaA and PsaB and the PSII proteins CP47 and CP43 were upregulated with salt treatment, which might partly explain the change in the energy transfer process. Furthermore, Lhcb1 was also stimulated by salt treatment while Lhcb2 and Lhcb3 did not show noticeable changes. This demonstrated that salt is important in the maintenance of photosynthesis. In summary, treatment with salt led to an increased amount of PsaA/B, CP47, CP43, and Lhcb1 with a concurrent increase in antennae size. These photosystem changes may be responsible for the adaptation of S. bigelovii to saline conditions.

Genome-wide expression analysis of salt-stressed diploid and autotetraploid Paulownia tomentosa

“…PT2 comparison. This is in agreement with the results of a previous study of Salicorniabigelovii Torr [ 75 ]. Electrons derived from water by the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II are transferred to NADP + , leading to the production of NADPH.…”

Progress in the Study and Use of Seawater Vegetables

“…The halophytes have a stronger ion regionalization function and, thus, can maintain a higher net photosynthetic rate under salt stress conditions. 100,101 Taking Suaeda salsa as an example, the net photosynthetic rate significantly improved under salt treatment. 102…”

“…Bethke and Malcoln (1992) suggest that the decrease in photosynthetic rate is significantly related to the increase in Na + and Cl – concentrations in the leaves, possibly because the mesophyll cells have insufficient ability to localize these two ions. The halophytes have a stronger ion regionalization function and, thus, can maintain a higher net photosynthetic rate under salt stress conditions. , Taking Suaeda salsa as an example, the net photosynthetic rate significantly improved under salt treatment …”

Research on the adaptive mechanism of photosynthetic apparatus under salt stress: New directions to increase crop yield in saline soils

“…This indicated that salt stress has an adverse effect on PSII and LHC II protein complexes. The strong salt‐tolerant plant Salicornia bigelovii , exhibited better photosynthetic properties under 400 mM NaCl than the control which may be due to an increased amount of psaA/B, CP47, CP43 and LHCb1 with a concurrent increase in antennae size (F. Zhou, Hua, Qiu, Zheng, & Wang, ).…”