Cloning, Characterization, and Functional Analysis of Maize DEHYDRIN2

Dehydrins (LEA Dll proteins) are one of the typical families of plant proteins that accumulate in response to dehydration, cold stress, abscisic acid, or during seed maturation. A 1.3-kb cDNA was cloned from a cDNA expression library of 5-day-old germinating maize scutellums under drought stress. The deduced protein sequence indicated a dehydrin gene encoding SK$_3$ LEA protein typically expressed during cold acclimation, but not by drought stress in barley and wheat. Thus, it was named maize DEHYDRIN2 (ZmDhn2). It accumulates rapidly and highly in drought-stressed scutellum and leaf tissues at any stage, but not under cold stress. ZmDhn2 gene was transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana for functional analysis under drought condition. From electrolyte leakage test, no significant difference showed between wild type and transformants under normal growth condition, but the leakage level of electrolyte in wild type plants was about 3 times as high as that in the transformed plants under drought stress. It suggests that ZmDHN2 playa role in increasing drought tolerance.