AUTHOR=Maathuis Frans J. M. , Ahmad Izhar , Patishtan Juan TITLE=Regulation of Na+ fluxes in plants JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=5 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2014.00467 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2014.00467 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

When exposed to salt, every plant takes up Na+ from the environment. Once in the symplast, Na+ is distributed within cells and between different tissues and organs. There it can help to lower the cellular water potential but also exert potentially toxic effects. Control of Na+ fluxes is therefore crucial and indeed, research shows that the divergence between salt tolerant and salt sensitive plants is not due to a variation in transporter types but rather originates in the control of uptake and internal Na+ fluxes. A number of regulatory mechanisms has been identified based on signaling of Ca2+, cyclic nucleotides, reactive oxygen species, hormones, or on transcriptional and post translational changes of gene and protein expression. This review will give an overview of intra- and intercellular movement of Na+ in plants and will summarize our current ideas of how these fluxes are controlled and regulated in the early stages of salt stress.