Growth and water relations of salinised tomato plants overexpressing LeNHX2 and SlSOS2

Abstract

-Tomato plants overexpressing the (K+, Na+)/H+ antiporter LeNHX2 and SlSOS2 Na+/H+ antiporters show values of plant water consumption slightly lower that those recorded on wild-type plants. Both under non-saline and saline growth conditions, tomato plants overexpressing the (K+,Na+)/H+ antiporter LeNHX2 and SlSOS2 show lower values of fresh and dry weight than wild-type plants. - The overexpression of the (K+,Na+)/H+ antiporter LeNHX2 and SlSOS2 of K+/H+ and Na+/H+ antiporters does not alter gas exchange parameters and water use efficiency estimated as the ratio between A/E or as the ratio between biomass production and volume of water consumption.