(Press-News.org)
Soil salinity is a key abiotic stress factor. Salt stress substantially impairs plant growth, development, and productivity, significantly reducing crop yields worldwide. It induces various kinds of stress in plant organs, including toxic ion accumulation, oxidative stress, and osmotic stress. Notably, high sodium ion (Na⁺) levels affect protein synthesis, photosynthetic efficiency, nutrient homeostasis, and enzyme activities, causing long-term damage to plants.
Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance. Recently, scientists have implicated myosin XI, a motor protein that primarily facilitates intracellular trafficking and organelle movement in plant cells, in abiotic stress responses. However, its specific role in salt tolerance remains poorly understood.
Recently, researchers from Waseda University—PhD student Haiyang Liu from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering and Professor Motoki Tominaga from the Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, School of Education—have revealed that the expression of three members, AtXI-K, AtXI-2, and AtXI-1, known as the main drivers of cytoplasmic streaming, was altered under salt stress conditions. Among these, they discovered that only the loss-of-function mutant of AtXI-1 exhibited higher salt tolerance compared to the wild-type (WT). Their insightful findings were made available online and have been published in the journal Plant & Cell Physiology on October 27, 2025.
Liu discusses the motivation behind their present research by stating, “This research was driven by the goal of understanding how plants maintain cellular organization under extreme environmental stress. While motor proteins such as myosin XI have been hypothesized to regulate ion balance, this possibility has remained largely unexplored.”
The team found that the triple mutant (3ko), as well as the single atxi-1 mutant, exhibited improved salt tolerance. In contrast, the salt tolerance of atxi-k, atxi-2, and the double mutant (2ko) lines was not significantly different from that of the WT Arabidopsis plants. This observation points to a particular role of AtXI-1 in modulating salt tolerance.
Further investigations revealed that the atxi-1 plants accumulated lower amounts of Na⁺, while maintaining higher levels of chlorophyll and proline under salt stress conditions, in comparison to their WT counterparts. However, 3ko lines exhibited low seed germination under salt stress, indicating a stage-specific tolerance mechanism.
Considering all the above insights, the researchers propose that Arabidopsis myosin XI-1 substantially regulates adaptation to salt stress, likely via the intracellular Na⁺ homeostasis mechanism. These findings suggest functional diversification among myosin XI members and provide valuable insights into myosin XI-mediated stress responses, identifying potential targets for enhancing crop resilience to salinity.
“Our work offers a new strategy for improving crop salt tolerance by targeting myosin XI function. This could enable the development of salt-resilient cultivars suited for saline soils, contributing to sustainable agriculture under climate stress. This research addresses the global challenge of soil salinization, which threatens agricultural productivity and food security. By uncovering a novel role for myosin XI in regulating Na⁺ homeostasis, it offers a molecular target for developing salt-tolerant crops, contributing to sustainable farming in saline-affected regions,” concludes Liu, highlighting the potential real-life applications of their breakthrough study.
By revealing how myosin XI-1 contributes to salt tolerance, this research advances the molecular understanding of plant stress responses and offers a promising direction for developing resilient crops through targeted genetic and physiological studies.
***
Reference
DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcaf140
Authors: Haiyang Liu1 and Motoki Tominaga2
Affiliations:
1Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Japan
2Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, Japan
About Waseda University
Located in the heart of Tokyo, Waseda University is a leading private research university that has long been dedicated to academic excellence, innovative research, and civic engagement at both the local and global levels since 1882. The University has produced many changemakers in its history, including eight prime ministers and many leaders in business, science and technology, literature, sports, and film. Waseda has strong collaborations with overseas research institutions and is committed to advancing cutting-edge research and developing leaders who can contribute to the resolution of complex, global social issues. The University has set a target of achieving a zero-carbon campus by 2032, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
To learn more about Waseda University, visit https://www.waseda.jp/top/en
About Haiyang Liu from Waseda University
Haiyang Liu, the first author of this study, is a PhD student at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University, Japan. His research interest lies in the study of myosin XI, a key player in plant drought defense, boron uptake, and salt tolerance. He has authored three papers on these topics with Motoki Tominaga, the corresponding author of this study, a professor at the Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences at the School of Education at Waseda University.
END
Indoor air quality has become an urgent concern in recent times, as we spend a considerable amount of time inside our home. Advances in measurement technologies have revealed that small, otherwise invisible ultrafine particles (UFPs) pose a significant threat to indoor air quality. While there are outdoor sources of this particulate air pollutants, the most common source lies indoor. The UFPs emitted by small home appliances equipped with electric heating coils and brushed DC motors can reach to the users as they are deployed close to the users without any preventive shield.
In a new study published from Pusan National University (PNU), a group of researchers led by Professor ...
Indigenous communities will be empowered to renew and rebuild their own legal systems with support from Next Steps: Rebuilding Indigenous Law, the new research initiative from the University of Victoria (UVic) Faculty of Law.
“UVic is in the forefront of a profound shift in how education and research can be done—with Indigenous Peoples as co-creators and leaders,” says Qwul’sih’yah’maht, Robina Thomas, acting president and vice-chancellor of the University of Victoria. “Next Steps not only represents a model ...
Acoustic waves are best known as the invisible delivery agents bringing voices, car horns, or our favorite song to our ears. But the waves can also move physical objects, like an item vibrating atop a concert speaker — offering the power to turn sound into a tool.
Since receiving a 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Zhenhua Tian and his team have explored how to use acoustic waves as invisible grabbers to manipulate fluid flows and tiny particles on electronic chips. ...
A subtle change in how climate risk is communicated—mentioning a person’s local area—can significantly increase attention to disaster preparedness messages, according to a new study by researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics and Harvard University, published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings offer a practical, low-cost strategy for governments, insurers and local authorities seeking to boost climate resilience in vulnerable communities.
In a large field experiment involving nearly 13,000 homeowners in wildfire-prone areas ...
An international research team led by Professor Marc-Emmanuel Dumas at Imperial College London & CNRS together with Prof. Patrice Cani (Imperial & University of Louvain, UCLouvain), Dr. Dominique Gauguier (Imperial & INSERM, Paris) and Prof. Peter Liu (University of Ottawa Heart Institute) has uncovered a surprising ally in the fight against insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes: a microbial metabolite called trimethylamine (TMA). Published in Nature Metabolism, the study reveals that ...
A new brain implant stands to transform human-computer interaction and expand treatment possibilities for neurological conditions such as epilepsy, spinal cord injury, ALS, stroke, and blindness – helping to manage seizures and restore motor, speech, and visual function. This is done by providing a minimally invasive, high-throughput information link directly to and from the brain.
The transformational potential of this new system lies in its small size and ability to transfer data at high rates. Developed by researchers at Columbia University, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, this brain-computer interface (BCI) relies ...
Getting enough sleep and staying active are two of the most important things we can do for our health, but new research shows that most people struggle to achieve both, and that sleep may hold the key to moving more.
A study led by Flinders University analysed more than 28 million days of real-world health data from over 70,000 people across the globe and found that fewer than 13% consistently meet recommended sleep and physical activity targets.
The findings suggest that improving sleep quality could be an effective way to boost daily activity.
The research team examined data collected over three ...
Highly reactive organometallic reagents, like organolithiums (molecules with a carbon–lithium bond) are essential reagents in organic synthesis because of their applications from polymer synthesis to pharmaceuticals, and more. Lithium resources, however, are difficult to access because concentrated deposits are geographically restricted and modern extraction methods are burdened with environmental costs. Replacing lithium with sodium would be a significant contribution towards environmentally friendly organic synthesis because it is >1000 times more abundant and its extraction from seawater is sustainable ...
In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain — bypassing the body’s natural sensory pathways.
The soft, flexible device sits under the scalp but on top of the skull, where it delivers precise patterns of light through the bone to activate neurons across the cortex.
In experiments, scientists used the device’s tiny, patterned bursts of light to activate specific populations of neurons deep inside the brains of mouse models. (These neurons are genetically modified to respond to light.) The mice quickly learned ...
Rising greenhouse gas emissions could see the size of extreme floods in the Central Himalayas increase by between as much as 73% and 84% by the end of this century.
Geographers at Durham University, UK, simulated the risk of increased flooding on the Karnali River, which spans Nepal and China and has the potential to impact communities in Nepal and India.
They found that extreme floods – those with a 1% chance of happening within a year – could increase in size by 22% and 26% between 2020 and 2059, compared to flooding seen in the region between 1975 and 2014.
This increase ...
