Identification of QTLs involved in salt removal ability in rice leaf sheath

Leaf sheath of rice has the ability to remove salt (sodium and chloride ions) from xylem vessels and sequester salt into the fundamental parenchyma cells. However, there is no report on QTLs for the trait. QTLs may help to improve salt tolerance of rice using the trait by molecular breeding. Also, it may be helpful to identify the related genes to the trait.