Increased biomass and enhanced tolerance to salt stress in Chinese cabbage overexpressing Arabidopsis H⁺-PPase (AVP1)

On the basis of the reported agriculturally valuable phenotypes resulted from ectopic overexpression of Arabidopsis vacuolar H⁺-PPase (AVP1), we generated the Chinese cabbage lines expressing AVP1 which then subjected to salt stress to determine the AVP1 expression if it consistently confers the capability for increasing biomass and enhancing tolerance to salinity in other species. Collectively, here we demonstrate that the transgenic young plants show more vigorous growth and higher tolerance to salt stress than wild-type ones. Increased biomass phenotype by AVP1 expression was supported by comparing fresh and dry weights of transgenic and wild type plants grown under normal condition, while higher salt tolerance trait was confirmed by tracing the kinetics of photosystem II quantum yield and DAB-staining under gradually intensified salt stress induced by MS salt or NaCl, followed by normal condition.