The Caucasian Clover Gene Responds to Abiotic Stress and Improves Tolerance by Increasing the Activity of Antioxidant Enzymes.

Abiotic stress affects metabolic processes in plants and restricts plant growth and development. In this experiment, Caucasian clover ( M. Bieb.) was used as a material, and the CDS of , which is involved in regulating the response to abiotic stress, was cloned. The CDS of was 726 bp in length and encoded 241 amino acids. The protein encoded by was determined to be unstable, be highly hydrophilic, and contain 23 phosphorylation sites. Subcellular localization results showed that was localized in the nucleus. responded to salt, alkali, cold, and drought stress and could be induced by IAA, GA, and MeJA. By analyzing the gene expression and antioxidant enzyme activity in plants before and after stress, we found that drought and cold stress could induce the expression of and increase the antioxidant enzyme activity. could also induce the expression of ROS scavenging-related and stress-responsive genes and increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes, thus improving the ability of plants to resist stress. The results of this experiment provide references for subsequent in-depth exploration of both the function of in and the molecular mechanism underlying the resistance of Caucasian clover.