A Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase Gene From Saussurea involucrata Kar. et Kir., SiCSD, Enhances Drought, Cold and Oxidative Stress in Transgenic Tobacco

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) plays an important role in stress-tolerance in higher plants. In the present study, a novel CuZn superoxide dismutase gene, named as SiCSD (accession no. KC912564) was cloned from Saussurea involucrata Kar. et Kir. The deduced amino acid sequence shared 85% identity with CuZn-SOD of Solanum tuberosum and Solanum lycopersicum. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) showed that SiCSD was upregulated by treatments with cold, drought and oxidative stresses. SiCSD transgenic tobacco plants improved tolerance to drought, freezing and oxidative stresses and exhibited a higher survival rate, relative water content (RWC), photosynthesis efficiency, and higher activities of superoxide dismutases (SOD), catalases (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), but lower ion leakage (IL) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents compared with wild type. These data demonstrate that SiCSD may act as a positive regulator in drought and cold stress by reducing oxidant injury.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author