The Tonoplast Intrinsic Protein Gene is Responsive to Different Abiotic Stresses in .

In higher plants, aquaporin proteins (AQPs) play important roles in the uptake of water across cell membranes. However, their functions in halophytes are still largely unknown. In this work, we isolated, cloned, and identified , a tonoplast intrinsic protein gene from . Bioinformatic analyses demonstrated that encoded a tonoplast protein with the common properties of AQPs. Further multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analyses showed that KvTIP3 shared 65%-82% homology with other AQPs from , cotton, polar, and cocoa. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analyses revealed that was ubiquitously expressed in various tissues such as leaves, stems, and roots, with a predominant expression in roots. In addition, transcript was strongly induced by NaCl, low temperature, and ABA in . Our findings suggest that encodes a new AQP possibly involved in multiple abiotic stress responses in , and could be used as a potential candidate gene for the improvement of plants resistant to various abiotic stresses.