Salt tolerance conferred by overexpression of a vacuolar Na+/H+ antiport in Arabidopsis

Agricultural productivity is severely affected by soil salinity, One possib le mechanism by which plants could survive salt stress is to compartmentali ze sodium ions away from the cytosol. Overexpression of a vacuolar Na+/H+ a ntiport from Arabidopsis thaliana in Arabidopsis plants promotes sustained growth and development in soil watered with up to 200 millimolar sodium chl oride. This salinity tolerance was correlated with higher-than-normal level s of AtNHX1 transcripts, protein, and vacuolar Na+/H+ (sodium/proton) antip ort activity, These results demonstrate the feasibility of engineering salt tolerance in plants.