Overexpression of a Vesicle Trafficking Gene, OsRab7, Enhances Salt Tolerance in Rice

Abstract

High soils salinity is a main factor affecting agricultural production. Studying the function of salt-tolerance-related genes is essential to enhance crop tolerance to stress.Rab7is a small GTP-binding protein that is distributed widely among eukaryotes. Endocytic trafficking mediated byRab7plays an important role in animal and yeast cells, but the current understanding ofRab7in plants is still very limited. Herein, we isolated a vesicle trafficking gene,OsRab7, from rice. Transgenic rice over-expressingOsRab7exhibited enhanced seedling growth and increased proline content under salt-treated conditions. Moreover, an increased number of vesicles was observed in the root tip ofOsRab7transgenic rice. TheOsRab7over-expression plants showed enhanced tolerance to salt stress, suggesting that vacuolar trafficking is important for salt tolerance in plants.