Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2015, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (2): 180-190.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1259.2015.00180

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Cloning, Expression and Functional Analysis of a J-domain Protein- coding Gene, BhDNAJC2, from the Resurrection Plant Boea hygrometrica

Shixuan Chen1, 3, Zhennan Zhang3, 4, Bo Wang3, Yan Zhu3, *, Yuehua Gong1, 2, *, Dongmei Sun4, Xin Deng3   

  1. 1College of Life Sciences, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, Yangling 712100, China;
    2.College of Life Sciences and Food Engineering, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China;
    3.Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China;
    4.College of Life Sciences and Technology, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China
  • Received:2014-03-12 Revised:2014-05-08 Online:2015-03-01 Published:2015-04-10

Abstract: Heat shock proteins (Hsps) can relieve environmental stress damage by aiding proper folding or degradation of denatured proteins. The resurrection plant Boea hygrometrica can tolerate desiccation and revive after rehydration. In desiccated leaves of B. hygrometrica, an Hsp-coding gene was cloned and designated BhDNAJC2. Sequence analysis revealed that BhDNAJC2 contained a J-domain and thus was a novel member of the Hsp40 family. Real-time PCR revealed that BhDNAJC2 was induced by dehydration, cold, heat, oxidative, alkaline stresses and abscisic acid treatment. Confocal microscopy revealed the BhDNAJC2-YFP fusion protein in the endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus and cytoplasm. Compared to the wild type, Arabidopsis plants overexpressing BhDNAJC2 showed improved stress tolerance under drought, heat, salt and alkaline stresses, as indicated by better growth, higher Fv/Fm, and lower electrolytic leakage. BhDNAJC2 likely plays a key role in resistance to osmotic, saline, alkaline and heat stresses in B. hygrometrica.