Novel drought-inducible Cys2/His2-type zinc finger protein STF-2 from soybean ( Glycine max ) enhances drought tolerance in transgenic plants

摘要

The C2H2 -type (Cys2/His2-type) zinc finger proteins are transcription factors which play important roles in growth,development and tolerance ability to adverse stresses. We characterized STF-2 from Glycine max to determine its molecularstructure and biological function. The results showed that STF-2 was a novel plant C2H2-type zinc finger protein gene andencoded a 26.7-kDa protein comprising 249 amino acids. STF-2 is strongly expressed in flowers and leaves but only weaklyexpressed in stems and roots. We constructed a plant expression vector with STF-2 gene and transformed it into tobacco.We found that overexpression of STF-2 enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic tobacco. Our results indicate the STF-2plays an important role in soybean response to drought stress; furthermore, plant resistance to adversity can be improved byexogenous expression of this gene.