Diversity of Na allocation in salt-tolerant species of the genus .

Wild species in the genus are a great resource of tolerance to various stresses including salinity. We have previously screened the genetic resources of the genus and identified several accessions that have independently evolved salt tolerance. However, many aspects of such tolerance have remained unknown. Thus, we used autoradiography with radioactive sodium (Na) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to visualize and compare Na allocation in (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi (azuki bean), (Ohwi) Ohwi & H.Ohashi, (Ohwi) Ohwi & H.Ohashi, (Jacq.) Benth. and (Burm.) Merr.. The results indicated: 1) Tolerant accessions suppress Na accumulation compared to azuki bean. 2) and does so by accumulating higher amount of K, whereas and does so by other mechanisms. 3) avoids salt-shedding by allocating excess Na to newly expanded leaves. As the mechanisms of the tolerant species were different, they could be piled up in a single crop classical breeding or by genetic engineering or genome editing.