Overexpression of a tobacco J-domain protein enhances drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis

• The J-domain protein NtDnaJ1 is involved in drought response in tobacco.
• Overexpression of NtDnaJ1 enhanced drought tolerance in Arabidopsis.
• NtDnaJ1 overexpression upregulated expression of ABA signaling and antioxidant genes.

DnaJ proteins constitute a DnaJ/Hsp40 family and are important regulators involved in diverse cellular functions. To date, the molecular mechanisms of DnaJ proteins involved in response to drought stress in plants are largely unknown. In this study, a putative DnaJ ortholog from Nicotiana tabacum (NtDnaJ1), which encodes a putative type-I J-protein, was isolated. The transcript levels of NtDnaJ1 were higher in aerial tissues and were markedly up-regulated by drought stress. Over-expression of NtDnaJ1 in Arabidopsis plants enhanced their tolerance to osmotic or drought stress. Quantitative determination of H2O2 accumulation has shown that H2O2 content increased in wild-type and transgenic seedlings under osmotic stress, but was significantly lower in both transgenic lines compared with the wild-type. Expression analysis of stress-responsive genes in NtDnaJ1-transgenic Arabidopsis revealed that there was significantly increased expression of genes involved in the ABA-dependent signaling pathway (AtRD20, AtRD22 and AtAREB2) and antioxidant genes (AtSOD1, AtSOD2, and AtCAT1). Collectively, these data demonstrate that NtDnaJ1 could be involved in drought stress response and its over-expression enhances drought tolerance possibly through regulating expression of stress-responsive genes. This study may facilitate our understandings of the biological roles of DnaJ protein-mediated abiotic stress in higher plants and accelerate genetic improvement of crop plants tolerant to environmental stresses.