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Plant Genomics 2019
June 13-14, 2019
Berlin, Germany
Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research
ISSN: 2249-7412
Page 43
Plant Genomics
5
th
Edition of International Conference on
AJPSKY 2019, Volume 09
Heterologous expression of a barley homologue Na
+
/K
+
transporter from
Leptochloa fusca
showed ion permeability
and salt tolerance
Zaheer Ahmed
University of Agriculture, Pakistan
T
he aminoglycoside antibiotic hygromycin (hyg),
inhibits yeast growth by hyperpolarization of cell
membrane.Wildtypeandtrk1,trk2yeast(Saccharomyces
cervisceae) strains growing on solid Yeast Peptone
Dextrose (YPD) media showed growth sensitivity
when supplemented with hyg. Growth of potassium
uptake deficient yeast strain deprived of its two major
K
+
transporters; Trk1 and Trk2, was used to show the
K
+
uptake activities on expression of LfHKT2;1. Loss
of growth activity of trk1, trk2 yeast was observed on
expression of empty control vector in the presence of hyg
while expression of LfHKT2;1 complemented the growth
activity of trk1, trk2 yeast cells. Increased concentration
of Na+ resulted in cellular Na+ toxicity which elevated on
supplementing hyg in the media. Hypersensitivity of trk1,
trk2 yeast cells to Na+ on expression of LfHKT2;1, clearly
showed an additional Na
+
uptake system operating on
membrane as confirmed by transient GFP expression
studies. Relative abundance of transcripts under low K
+
concentration revealed the high affinity K
+
uptake system
on expression of LfHKT2;1. This study demonstrated the
hyg sensitivity of yeast cells as the most powerful screen
to functionally characterize membrane transporters and
channels.