SOS2 promotes salt tolerance in part by interacting with the vacuolar H+-ATPase and upregulating its transport activity

Mol Cell Biol. 2007 Nov;27(22):7781-90. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00430-07. Epub 2007 Sep 17.

Abstract

The salt overly sensitive (SOS) pathway is critical for plant salt stress tolerance and has a key role in regulating ion transport under salt stress. To further investigate salt tolerance factors regulated by the SOS pathway, we expressed an N-terminal fusion of the improved tandem affinity purification tag to SOS2 (NTAP-SOS2) in sos2-2 mutant plants. Expression of NTAP-SOS2 rescued the salt tolerance defect of sos2-2 plants, indicating that the fusion protein was functional in vivo. Tandem affinity purification of NTAP-SOS2-containing protein complexes and subsequent liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis indicated that subunits A, B, C, E, and G of the peripheral cytoplasmic domain of the vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) were present in a SOS2-containing protein complex. Parallel purification of samples from control and salt-stressed NTAP-SOS2/sos2-2 plants demonstrated that each of these V-ATPase subunits was more abundant in NTAP-SOS2 complexes isolated from salt-stressed plants, suggesting that the interaction may be enhanced by salt stress. Yeast two-hybrid analysis showed that SOS2 interacted directly with V-ATPase regulatory subunits B1 and B2. The importance of the SOS2 interaction with the V-ATPase was shown at the cellular level by reduced H+ transport activity of tonoplast vesicles isolated from sos2-2 cells relative to vesicles from wild-type cells. In addition, seedlings of the det3 mutant, which has reduced V-ATPase activity, were found to be severely salt sensitive. Our results suggest that regulation of V-ATPase activity is an additional key function of SOS2 in coordinating changes in ion transport during salt stress and in promoting salt tolerance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / anatomy & histology
  • Arabidopsis / physiology*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism*
  • Biological Transport / physiology
  • Dehydration*
  • Genotype
  • Phenotype
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Protein Isoforms / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / metabolism
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism*
  • Protein Subunits / genetics
  • Protein Subunits / metabolism*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Salts / metabolism*
  • Two-Hybrid System Techniques
  • Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases / genetics
  • Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases / metabolism*

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • Protein Isoforms
  • Protein Subunits
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Salts
  • SOS2 protein, Arabidopsis
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases
  • Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPases