OsRVE1 and OsRVE2 Promote Salinity Tolerance in Rice by Directly Activating OsSAPK5 and Modulating ABA Signalling.

OsRVE1 and OsRVE2 transcription factors directly activate OsSAPK5, enhancing rice salinity tolerance by reinforcing ABA-dependent stress responses, with overexpression improving salt resilience.

• Why it matters: Soil salinity poses a major threat to rice productivity, and understanding the transcriptional mechanisms linking salt stress and ABA signalling is crucial for developing salt-tolerant crops.
• What they did: Researchers identified OsRVE1 and OsRVE2 as salt- and ABA-induced MYB-related transcription factors, demonstrating their redundant roles through gene disruption and overexpression studies, and confirmed their direct binding to OsSAPK5 promoter via molecular assays.
• The result: Ectopic expression of OsSAPK5 significantly rescued salt sensitivity in mutants, establishing a regulatory module that enhances rice's ability to cope with salinity by strengthening ABA-mediated stress responses.