Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max) yields are threatened by multiple stresses including soil salinity. GmSALT3 confers net shoot exclusion for both Na+ and Cl- and improves salt tolerance of soybean; however, how the ER-localised GmSALT3 achieves this is unknown. Here, GmSALT3s function was investigated in heterologous systems and near-isogenic lines that contained the full-length GmSALT3 (NIL-T; salt-tolerant) or a truncated transcript Gmsalt3 (NIL-S; salt-sensitive). GmSALT3 restored growth of K+-uptake-defective E. coli and contributed toward net influx and accumulation of Na+, K+, and Cl- in Xenopus laevis oocytes, while Gmsalt3 was non-functional. A time-course analysis of the NILs confirmed that shoot Cl- exclusion breaks down prior to Na+ exclusion, while grafting showed that shoot Na+ exclusion occurs via a root xylem-based mechanism. In contrast, NIL-T plants exhibited significantly greater Cl- content in both the stem xylem and phloem sap compared to NIL-S, indicating that shoot Cl- exclusion likely depends upon novel phloem-based Cl- recirculation. NIL-T shoots grafted on NIL-S roots contained low shoot Cl-, which confirmed that Cl- recirculation is dependent on the presence of GmSALT3 in shoots. Overall, these findings provide new insights on GmSALT3s impact on salinity tolerance and reveal a novel mechanism for shoot Cl- exclusion in plants. HighlightGmSALT3 improves soybean salt tolerance. Here, using heterologous expression, we found GmSALT3 is a functional ion transporter, and, in planta that it confers shoot salt exclusion through root-based Na+ xylem exclusion and shoot-based Cl- exclusion via phloem derived Cl- recirculation.