title: A novel stress-induced sugarcane gene confers tolerance to drought, salt and oxidative stress in transgenic tobacco plants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Drought is a major abiotic stress that affects crop productivity worldwide. Sugarcane can withstand periods of water scarcity during the final stage of culm maturation, during which sucrose accumulation occurs. Meanwhile, prolonged periods of drought can cause severe plant losses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In a previous study, we evaluated the transcriptome of drought-stressed plants to better understand sugarcane responses to drought. Among the up-regulated genes was Scdr1 (sugarcane drought-responsive 1). The aim of the research reported here was to characterize this gene. Scdr1 encodes a putative protein containing 248 amino acids with a large number of proline (19%) and cysteine (13%) residues. Phylogenetic analysis showed that ScDR1is in a clade with homologs from other monocotyledonous plants, separate from those of dicotyledonous plants. The expression of Scdr1 in different varieties of sugarcane plants has not shown a clear association with drought tolerance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overexpression of Scdr1 in transgenic tobacco plants increased their tolerance to drought, salinity and oxidative stress, as demonstrated by increased photosynthesis, water content, biomass, germination rate, chlorophyll content and reduced accumulation of ROS. Physiological parameters, such as transpiration rate (E), net photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (gs) and internal leaf CO(2) concentration, were less affected by abiotic stresses in transgenic Scdr1 plants compared with wild-type plants. Overall, our results indicated that Scdr1 conferred tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses, highlighting the potential of this gene for biotechnological applications.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genoma Funcional, Departamento de Genética, Evolução e Bioagentes, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Begcy
authors.forename: Eduardo D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Mariano
authors.forename: Agustina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.forename: Carolina G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Lembke
authors.forename: Sonia Marli
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Zingaretti
authors.forename: Glaucia M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Menossi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D055864:Droughts; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010788:Photosynthesis; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D031786:Saccharum / Q000378:metabolism*; D012492:Salts / Q000737:chemistry; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013395:Sucrose / Q000378:metabolism; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics*; D019076:Transgenes; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D012492:Salts; D014867:Water; D002734:Chlorophyll; D013395:Sucrose