Gene Cloned from Desert Moss Exhibits Multiple Stress Tolerance.

is the dominant species of biological soil crust in the desert, including the Gurbantunggut Desert in China. It is widely distributed in drylands and considered to be a new model of vegetative desiccation tolerance moss. Here, we cloned an gene from and confirmed its function under multiple abiotic stresses, both in situ and in . The results showed that the gene encoded a protein with a highly conserved ATG8 functional domain. gene was increasingly expressed under different abiotic stresses. Under desiccation stress, the overexpression of enhanced the tolerance of and its ability to scavenge ROS. In addition, overexpression promoted the growth of under multiple stress conditions. Thus, may be a multifunctional gene, and it plays a critical role in the survival of under various abiotic stresses. Our results provide new insights into the function of in enabling desiccation tolerance and open up more possibilities for subsequent plant molecular breeding and the mining of the resistance genes of and other moss species.