Xyloglucan Endotransglucosylase-Hydrolase30 negatively affects salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Plants have evolved various strategies to sense and respond to saline environments that severely reduce plant growth and limit agricultural productivity. Alteration to the cell wall is one strategy that helps plants adapt to salt stress. However, we do not fully understand the physiological significance of how cell wall components respond to salt stress. Here, we show that expression of XTH30, encoding a xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase, is strongly up-regulated in response to salt stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. Loss-of-function in XTH30 leads to increased salt tolerance and overexpression of XTH30 results in salt hypersensitivity. XTH30 is located in the plasma membrane and highly expressed in the root, flower, stem, and etiolated hypocotyl. The NaCl-induced increase in XLFG (xyloglucan-derived (XyG) oligosaccharide) of the wild type is partly blocked in xth30 mutants. Loss-of-function in XTH30 slows down the decrease of crystalline cellulose content and the depolymerization of microtubules caused by salt stress. Moreover, less Na+ accumulation in shoot and H2O2 content are found in xth30 mutants in response to salt stress. Taken together, these results indicate that XTH30 modulates XyG side chains with altered abundance of XLFG, the cellulose synthesis and cortical microtubule stability, and then negatively affects salt tolerance.