Ipomoea pes-caprae IpASR Improves Salinity and Drought Tolerance in Transgenic Escherichia coli and Arabidopsis

Ipomoea pes-caprae L. is an extremophile halophyte with strong adaptability to seawater and drought. It is widely used in the ecological restoration of coastal areas or degraded islands in tropical and subtropical regions. In this study, a new abscisic acid, stress and ripening (ASR) gene, IpASR, was reported, and is mainly associated with biological functions involved in salt and drought tolerance. Sequence analysis of IpASR showed that this protein contains an ABA/WDS (abscisic acid/water deficit stress) domain, which is a common feature of all plant ASR members. Overexpression of IpASR improved Escherichia coli growth performance compared with the control under abiotic stress treatment. The transgenic overexpressing IpASR Arabidopsis showed higher tolerance to salt and drought stress than the wild type and lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and superoxide (O(2)(−)) accompanied by increased antioxidant enzyme activity in vivo. IpASR exhibits transcription factor’s activity. Therefore, the overexpression of IpASR in Arabidopsis is supposed to influence the expression of some genes involved in anti-oxidative and abiotic stresses. The results indicate that IpASR is involved in the plant response to salt and drought and probably acts as a reactive oxygen species scavenger or transcription factor, and therefore influences physiological processes associated with various abiotic stresses in plants.