Open Access

ARTICLE

Chickpea C2H2-Type Zinc Finger Protein ZF2 is a Positive Regulator in Drought Response in Arabidopsis

Sushuang Liu^1,2,#, Yanmin Liu^1,2,#, Chundong Liu¹, Xingwang Yu^2,3, Hao Ma^2,4,*
1 Department of Life Sciences and Health, Huzhou College, Huzhou, 313000, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China
3 Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 27695-7620, USA
4 Institute of Desert in the Arid Areas, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, 830052, China
* Corresponding Author: Hao Ma. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Identification of Genetic/Epigenetic Components Responding to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Crops)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(2), 577-590. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.023738

Received 12 May 2022; Accepted 26 July 2022; Issue published 12 October 2022

Abstract

Drought is a major abiotic stress limiting agricultural crops production worldwide. In our study, we isolated a novel C2H2-type zinc finger protein gene ZF2 from chickpea. ZF2 consisted of 232 amino acids with two QALGGH motifs in Cys2/His2 zinc finger domain. Transient expression analysis of ZF2:GFP fusion protein showed that ZF2 was a nuclear localized protein. In the yeast assay system, the full-length of ZF2 did not show transcriptional activation. Expression of ZF2 gene was enhanced by treatments of several abiotic stresses and phytohormones. The promoter region of ZF2 contained multiple stress- and hormone-related cis-elements. Overexpression of ZF2 in Arabidopsis significantly improved the root length and fresh weight at seedling stage and enhanced the survival rates and proline content under drought treatment. These results indicated that ZF2 functioned as a positive regulator in drought response.

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Keywords

ZF2; chickpea; drought tolerance; transgenic

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