ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Overexpression of BvKUP13 from Sugar Beet Increased Salt Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana
Provisionally accepted
- Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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The KUP/HAK/KT family is the largest group of potassium ion transporters, found across various plant organs, and plays a key role in potassium ion uptake, transport, and responses to abiotic stress. In this study, BvKUP13 was isolated from the salt-tolerant beet variety AK3018. The 2199 bp open reading frame encodes a protein of 732 amino acids, shows striking sequence similarity to KUP proteins from Chenopodium quinoa and Spinacia oleracea, and is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. BvKUP13 was most highly expressed in the leaves and lowest in the roots, and was rapidly up-regulated by NaCl in different tissues. Transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing BvKUP13 displayed enhanced growth under salt stress, increased photosynthesis and a more stable Na+/K+ ratio compared to the wild type (WT). Additionally, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT), along with the levels of proline, soluble sugars, and soluble proteins, were significantly higher in BvKUP13-overexpressing plants compared to WT. In contrast, the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and superoxide anion (O2-) were significantly lower. These findings suggested that BvKUP13 conferred salt tolerance in transgenic plants by maintaining Na+/K+ ion homeostasis, enhancing photosynthesis, and improving the ability of antioxidant regulation and osmotic adjustment. Therefore, BvKUP13 could act as a key candidate gene for improving salt tolerance in sugar beet through genetic modification.
Keywords: BvKUP133, Functionalidentification5, SaltStress2, Sugarbeet1, TransgenicArabidopsis4
Received: 31 Oct 2025; Accepted: 30 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wang, Cui, Cheng, Wang, Sun, Li, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ningning Li
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