Natural variation in salt-induced changes in root:shoot ratio reveals SR3G as a negative regulator of root suberization and salt resilience in Arabidopsis

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.98896.2
• Publication Date: 2024-11-27T13:25:37Z
• Authors: Maryam Rahmati Ishka; Hayley Sussman; Yunfei Hu; Mashael Daghash A...; Eric Craft; Ronell Sicat; Minmin Wang; Li’ang Yu; Rashid Ait-Haddou; Bo Li; Georgia Drakakaki; Andrew Nelson; Miguel Pineros; Arthur Korte; Lukasz Jaremko; Christa Testerink; Mark Tester; Magdalena M Julko...
• Keywords: Resilience; Root (linguistics)

Soil salinity is one of the major threats to agricultural productivity worldwide. Salt stress exposure alters root and shoot growth rates, thereby affecting overall plant performance. While past studies have extensively documented effect salt on elongation development separately, here we take an innovative approach by examining coordination under conditions. Utilizing a newly developed tool for quantifying root:shoot ratio in agar-grown Arabidopsis seedlings, found that results loss between rates. We identify specific gene cluster encoding domain-of-unknown-function 247 (DUF247), characterize these genes as S alt R oot:shoot atio egulator G ene (SR3G). Further analysis elucidates role SR3G negative regulator tolerance, revealing its function regulating growth, suberization, sodium accumulation. further expression modulated WRKY75 transcription factor, known positive tolerance. Finally, show sensitivity wrky75 mutant completely diminished when it combined with sr3g mutation. Together, our demonstrate utilizing architectural feature leads discovery new resilience gene. The study’s findings not only contribute understanding tolerance mechanisms but also open avenues genetic agronomic strategies enhance crop environmental resilience.