Overexpression of AtOxR gene improves abiotic stresses tolerance and vitamin C content in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: Abiotic stresses are serious threats to plant growth, productivity and result in crop loss worldwide, reducing average yields of most major crops. Although abiotic stresses might elicit different plant responses, most induce the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plant cells leads to oxidative damage. L-ascorbic acid (AsA, vitamin C) is known as an antioxidant and H(2)O(2)-scavenger that defends plants against abiotic stresses. In addition, vitamin C is also an important component of human nutrition that has to be obtained from different foods. Therefore, increasing the vitamin C content is important for improving abiotic stresses tolerance and nutrition quality in crops production. RESULTS: Here, we show that the expression of AtOxR gene is response to multiple abiotic stresses (salt, osmotic, metal ion, and H(2)O(2) treatment) in both the leaves and roots of Arabidopsis. AtOxR protein was localized to the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) in yeast and Arabidopsis cells by co-localization analysis with ER specific dye. AtOxR-overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis plants enhance the tolerance to abiotic stresses. Overexpression of AtOxR gene resulted in AsA accumulation and decreased H(2)O(2) content in transgenic plants. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, our results show that AtOxR responds to multiple abiotic stresses. Overexpressing AtOxR improves tolerance to abiotic stresses and increase vitamin C content in Arabidopsis thaliana. AtOxR will be useful for the improvement of important crop plants through moleculer breeding. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-016-0299-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.