Analysis and Functional Verification of Gene Associated with Drought-Resistance in Pall.

The herbaceous peony ( Pall.) is widely cultivated as an ornamental, medicinal and edible plant in China. Drought stress can seriously affect the growth of herbaceous peony and reduce its quality. In our previous research, a significantly differentially expressed gene, , was obtained in herbaceous peony under drought stress based on transcriptome analysis, but little is known about its function. In this study, the first that was isolated in herbaceous peony was comprised of 910 bp, and was designated as (OP480984). It had a complete open reading frame of 537 bp and encoded a 178-amino acid protein with a molecular weight of 18.95 kDa, which was located in the membrane. When was transferred into tobacco, the transgenic plants had enhanced tolerance to drought stress, potentially due to the increase in the abscisic acid (ABA) content and the reduction in the level of hydrogen peroxide (HO). In addition, the enhanced ability to scavenge HO under drought stress led to improvements in the enzyme activity and the potential photosynthetic capacity. These results combined suggest that is a key factor to conferring drought stress tolerance in herbaceous peony and provide a scientific theoretical basis for the following improvement in the drought resistance of herbaceous peony and other plants through genetic engineering technology.