| Summary: | Despite the importance of lipid metabolism in various biological processes, little is known about the functionality of ATS1, a plastid glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase catalyzing the initial step of the prokaryotic glycerolipids biosynthetic pathway, in plant response to salt stress. In this study, both the loss-of-function mutants and the overexpression lines of <i>ATS1</i> were analyzed for salt tolerance properties. The results showed that <i>ATS1</i> overexpression lines had lower seed germination, shoot biomass, chlorophyll content, the proportion of relatively normal pod, and higher root/shoot ratio and anthocyanidin content compared with the wild type. Physiological and biochemical analysis revealed that <i>ats1</i> mutants had more unsaturated fatty acids to stabilize the plasma membrane under salt damage. Additionally, less induction of three main antioxidant enzymes activity and lower MDA content in <i>ats1</i> mutants indicated that mutation of the <i>ATS1</i> gene could reduce the damage extent. Furthermore, the <i>ats1</i> mutants maintained the K<sup>+</sup>/Na<sup>+</sup> homeostasis by upregulating <i>HAK5</i> expression to increase K<sup>+</sup> absorption and down-regulating <i>HKT1</i> expression to prevent Na<sup>+</sup> uptake. This study suggested that the <i>ATS1</i> gene negatively affects salt resistance in Arabidopsis.
|
|---|