Induction of salt and osmotic stress tolerance by overexpression of an intracellular vesicle trafficking protein AtRab7 (AtRabG3e)

Adaptation to stress requires removal of existing molecules from various cellular compartments and replacing them with new ones. The transport of materials to and from the specific compartments involved in the recycling and deposition of macromolecules is carried out by an intracellular vesicle trafficking system. Here, we report the isolation of a vesicle trafficking-regulating gene, AtRabG3e (formerly AtRab7), from Arabidopsis. The gene was induced during programmed cell death after treatment of intact leaves with superoxide and salicylic acid or infection with necrogenic pathogens. Transgenic plants that expressed the AtRabG3e gene under the constitutive 35S promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus exhibited accelerated endocytosis in roots, leaves, and protoplasts. The transgenic plants accumulated sodium in the vacuoles and had higher amounts of sodium in the shoots. The transgenic plants also showed increased tolerance to salt and osmotic stresses and reduced accumulation of reactive oxygen species during salt stress. These results imply that vesicle trafficking plays an important role in plant adaptation to stress, beyond the housekeeping function in intracellular vesicle trafficking.