Identification and characterization of the strawberry KT/HAK/KUP transporter gene family in response to K+ deficiency

• Published in: Acta physiologiae plantarum Vol. 43; no. 1
• Main Authors: Gao, Yachao, Yu, Chunyan, Zhang, Kai, Zhang, Hongxia, Zhang, Shaoying, Song, Zhizhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Breeding; Complementation; Environmental stress; Flowering; Flowers; Fruit crops; Homeostasis; Life Sciences; Molecular modelling; Nutrition; Original Article; Plant Anatomy/Development; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plants (botany); Potassium; Strawberries; Homeostasis; KT/HAK/KUP transporter; K; deficiency; Strawberry
• ISSN: 0137-5881; 1861-1664
• DOI: 10.1007/s11738-020-03172-3

The potassium ( K + ) t ransporter/ h igh- a ffinity K + / K + up take transporters (KT/HAK/KUP), which contribute to K + uptake, transport and allocation, take an indispensible part in ion homeostasis, as well as in plant adaptation to disadvantageous environmental stresses. However, molecular mechanisms in terms of K + nutrition in fruit crops are still largely unknown. In this work, we isolated 15 KT/HAK/KUP transporter genes in strawberry (designated as FveKUP1 to FveKUP15 ), and checked their expression under both normal and K + deficient conditions. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses indicated that most FveKUPs were largely expressed in flowers, with a responsive expression to K + deficiency. Among these FveKUPs , FveKUP8 was the most abundantly expressed gene in all tested tissues, and its expression was significantly reduced by K + deficiency. Further functional complementation experiment in bacterial mutant indicated that FveKUP8 can utilize external K + under neutral proton environment, and might be a dominant K + transporter during the flowering of strawberry plants. Our findings suggest that FveKUP8 is involved in K + homeostasis in strawberry, and could be used as a potential gene for the molecular breeding of high K + efficiency plants.