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

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Abstract

The potassium (K+) transporter/high-affinity K+/K+ uptake 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.

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Abbreviations

K+ :

Potassium

g s :

Stomatal conductance

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

P N :

Net photosynthetic rate

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

Tr:

Transpiration rate

Zn:

Zinc

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Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the following grants: the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1000500), National Natural Science Foundations of China (31700524 and 31801837), the Science Foundations of of Shandong Province (ZR2016CB48), the Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System Innovation Team of Shandong Province of China (SDAIT-02-05), and Special Education Fund of Shandong Province (10000326).

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  1. Yachao Gao and Chunyan Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Huhhot, 010018, China

    Yachao Gao, Hongxia Zhang & Shaoying Zhang

  2. Institute for Advanced Study of Coastal Ecology, College of Agriculture, Ludong University, Yantai, 264000, China

    Yachao Gao, Chunyan Yu, Kai Zhang, Hongxia Zhang & Zhizhong Song

  3. Key Laboratory of Molecular Module-Based Breeding of High Yield and Abiotic Resistant Plants in Universities of Shandong (Ludong University), Yantai, 264000, China

    Yachao Gao, Chunyan Yu, Kai Zhang, Hongxia Zhang, Shaoying Zhang & Zhizhong Song

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  1. Yachao Gao
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  2. Chunyan Yu
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  3. Kai Zhang
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  4. Hongxia Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhizhong Song.

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11738_2020_3172_MOESM1_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file1 Supplemental Fig. 1 Basic information of conserved motifs identified in FveKUP proteins. The MEME (v4.12.0) online programwas used, as described by Bailey et al. (2006), to display the conserved motifs shared by FveKUP proteins (TIF 159 KB)

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Gao, Y., Yu, C., Zhang, K. et al. Identification and characterization of the strawberry KT/HAK/KUP transporter gene family in response to K+ deficiency. Acta Physiol Plant 43, 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-020-03172-3

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