Overexpression of from Bunge Enhanced Drought and Salt Tolerance by Improving ROS-Scavenging Capability.

() genes play a crucial role in the response to abiotic stress and are important target genes for research on plant stress tolerance mechanisms. Bunge is a promising candidate tree species for investigating the tolerance mechanism of woody plants against abiotic stress. In our previous study, was identified as being associated with seed drought tolerance. In this study, was cloned from Bunge and functionally characterized. encodes an LEA protein and is located in the nucleus. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed a recent affinity of the AtruLEA1 protein to AT3G15760.1. Overexpression of resulted in enhanced tolerance of to drought and salt stress and heightened the ABA sensitivity. Compared to wild-type (WT) plants, plants with overexpressed exhibited increased activities of antioxidant enzymes under drought stress. Meanwhile, the ROS level of transgenic was significantly less than that of the WT. Additionally, the stoma density and stoma openness of were higher compared to those in the WT under salt and drought stress conditions, which ensures that the biomass and relative water content of transgenic are significantly better than those of the WT. These results indicated that was involved in salt and drought stress tolerances by maintaining ROS homeostasis, and its expression was positively regulated by abiotic stress. These results indicate a positive role of AtruLEA1 in drought and salt stress and provide theoretical evidence in the direction of cultivating resistant plants.