Over-Expression of ScMnSOD, a SOD Gene Derived from Jojoba, Improve Drought Tolerance in Arabidopsis

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is mainly distributed in desert, and the molecular mechanisms of jojoba in response to abiotic stress still remain elusive. In this paper, we cloned and characterized a SOD gene from jojoba named as ScMnSOD, and introduced into Arabidopsis to investigate its functions of responding to drought stress. The transgenic Arabidopsis showed an improvement in drought tolerance. Moreover, under a water deficit condition, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was remarkably decreased in the transgenic lines compared to the WT. Furthermore, the ScMnSOD promoter was cloned to the 5′-upstream of GUS coding region in a binary vector, and introduced into Arabidopsis. And results showed that ScMnSOD expression can be induced by drought, salt, ABA, and low temperature. In conclusion, ScMnSOD plays an important role in drought tolerance which is, at least partially, attributed to its role in ROS detoxification.