Salt-induced accumulation of 26 and 27 kD proteins in cultured cells of rice plant

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Abstract
The unusual accumulation of proteins induced by salt stress or adaptation to salty environment was reported in cultured cells and whole plant bodies. Ericson and Alfinito (1984) reported the presence of a unique protein of 26 kD which was produced by salt stress in tobacco cell culture and did not disappear during the growth cycle of the cells, in addition to the increase of ordinary 20 and 32 kD proteins. Singh et al. (1985, 1987) studied the 26 kD protein in detail and demonstrated that its accumulation depended on the adaptation of the cells to NaCl or to water stress, and that its amount accounted for as much as 12% of the total cellular proteins. This protein was shown to be concentrated in dense inclusion bodies within vacuoles. The 26 kD protein which was observed in salt tobacco cell culture was also accumulated in salt-stressed whole plant roots of tobacco and other members of the Solanaceae family (King et al. 1986) on the basis of results from immunological experiments. The content of 26 and 27 kD proteins was reported to increase in barley roots by salt stress (Hurkman and Tanaka 1987; Takebayashi et al. 1987) as in the case of tobacco cell culture. Although the production of these proteins may not be specific to reactions of plants to salt stress, it is tempting to speculate that the expression of genes for these proteins may be involved in the ability of plants to tolerate salt, because salt stress induced the increase in the synthesis of these proteins whose characteristics were not transmitted to more than several generations when the cells were transferred to a nutrient solution without NaCl.