AtHSPR may function in salt-induced cell death and ER stress in Arabidopsis.

Salt stress is a harmful and global abiotic stress to plants and has an adverse effect on all physiological processes of plants. Recently, we cloned and identified a novel AtHSPR (Arabidopsis thaliana Heat Shock Protein Related), which encodes a nuclear-localized protein with ATPase activity, participates in salt and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis. Transcript profiling analysis revealed a differential expression of genes involved in accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, stress response and photosynthesis between athspr mutant and WT under salt stress. Here, we provide further analysis of the data showing the regulation of salt-induced cell death and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in Arabidopsis and propose a hypothetical model for the role of AtHSPR in the regulation of the salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.