Abstract
Abstract Salt stress is one of the very harsh abiotic stresses plants face which affects crops growth and productivity. Studying gene regulation in plants under salts attracts scientists worldwide. Using T-DNA strategy has become a crucial approach in studying gene function and regulation. In Arabidopsis, KUP family genes are suggested to be involved in salinity stress in plants. KUP8 gene is classified as a member of one of the KUP family that mainly has a role in K ion transportation. As this gene has not been tested before under salinity stress in Arabidopsis, I interested in understanding the effect of the T-DNA site on the KUP8 regulation. Two KUP8 gene mutants were used comparing to the wild type to study their function in salt stress response. Kup8 mutant 2 'M2' of the KUP8 gene showed higher sensitivity to salinity at 100 mM NaCl compared to the Kup8 mutant 1 'M1' and wild type (Col. 0). This finding is referred to the interruption of the KUP8 gene and preventing the production of the normal transcript. There was no clearer tendency showing the effect of high salt concentration 150mM NaCl on the plant survival among the three tested genotypes. Visible observation indicated the accumulation of anthocyanin on wild type plants followed by kup8 mutant 1 'M1' while kup8 mutant 2 'M2' showed less darkness. This result indicates that the presence of the insert in the gene promoter may up regulate and enhances the expression of the targeted gene under salt stress and may improve the survival ability at plant level.