A novel eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A gene (eIF5A) from Populus simonii ? ? P. nigra confers CuSO 4 and NaCl stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

摘要

The role of plant eIF5A proteins in multiple biological processes such as protein synthesis regulation, translation elongation, mRNA turnover, programmed cell death and stress tolerance is well-known. In the present study, we cloned and characterized a PsneIF5A2 from poplar (Populus simonii × P. nigra) leaves. With the support of bioinformatics prediction, the results showed the domain structures of PsneIF5A2, which was predicted by multiple alignment analysis. It has a S1_eIF5A motif, which is an ortholog of eIF5A1 in Arabidopsis. The plant expression vector of PsneIF5A2 was transformed into Arabidopsis using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105. Ectopic expression of PsneIF5A2 in Arabidopsis significantly conferred CuSO 4 and NaCl stress tolerance. Furthermore, PsneIF5A2-transgenic Arabidopsis exhibited enhanced SOD and POD activities, lower MDA content and electrolyte leakage under CuSO 4 and NaCl stress, compared with control plants. Our results suggested that the PsneIF5A2 gene (GenBank No. KC521463) is an excellent candidate for genetic engineering to improve salt and heavy metal tolerance in agricultural plants.