When plants under salt stress, the intracellular ion concentration and osmotic pressure increase, which inhibits normal growth, development and life processes, and even leads to plant wilting and death. CLC (chloride channel protein) is a kind of anion channel protein that widely exists in plant cell membrane or organelle membrane. CLC proteins participate in the transmembrane transport of anions and plays an active role in plant tolerance to salt stress. In this study, we analysed the response and function of tomato CLC family genes in salt stress tolerance. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the promoter of SlCLC gene contained the most cis-acting elements related to abiotic stress response. Transcriptome data analysis and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results showed that SlCLC8 may be the key gene for salt stress resistance in this family. After salt stress treatment, the SlCLC8-silenced tomato plants showed higher wilting and oxidative stress, and significantly reduced salt tolerance compared with the control plants. Therefore, SlCLC8 is a positive regulator of tomato salt tolerance. In summary, this study elucidated the evolutionary patterns and functional differences of the tomato CLC gene family, and deepened the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in plants.

中文翻译：

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番茄 （Solanum lycopersicum） 中 CLC 基因家族的全基因组鉴定和 SlCLC8 在耐盐胁迫中的功能分析


当植物受到盐胁迫时，细胞内离子浓度和渗透压增加，抑制正常的生长、发育和生命过程，甚至导致植物枯萎和死亡。CLC（chloride channel protein，氯离子通道蛋白）是一种广泛存在于植物细胞膜或细胞器膜中的阴离子通道蛋白。CLC 蛋白参与阴离子的跨膜转运，并在植物对盐胁迫的耐受性中发挥积极作用。本研究分析了番茄 CLC 家族基因在耐盐胁迫中的响应和功能。生物信息学分析表明，SlCLC 基因启动子包含与非生物胁迫反应相关的大多数顺式作用元件。转录组数据分析和定量逆转录聚合酶链反应 （qRT-PCR） 结果显示，SlCLC8 可能是该家族抗盐胁迫的关键基因。盐胁迫处理后，与对照植株相比，SlCLC8 沉默的番茄植株表现出更高的萎蔫和氧化胁迫，并显著降低了耐盐性。因此，SlCLC8 是番茄耐盐性的正调节因子。综上所述，本研究阐明了番茄 CLC 基因家族的进化模式和功能差异，加深了对植物耐盐胁迫调控机制的理解。