Isolation of a novel dehydrin gene from Codonopsis lanceolata and analysis of its response to abiotic stresses

Dehydrins (DHNs) compose a family of intrinsically unstructured proteins that have high water solubility and accumulate during late seed development at low temperature or in water-deficit conditions. They are believed to play a protective role in freezing and drought-tolerance in plants. A full-length cDNA encoding DHN (designated as ClDhn) was isolated from an oriental medicinal plant Codonopsis lanceolata, which has been used widely in Asia for its anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. The full-length cDNA of ClDhn was 813 bp and contained a 477 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 159 amino acids. Deduced ClDhn protein had high similarities with other plant DHNs. RT-PCR analysis showed that different abiotic stresses such as salt, wounding, chilling and light triggered a significant induction of ClDhn at different time points within 4-48 hrs post-treatment. This study revealed that ClDhn assisted C. lanceolata in becoming resistant to dehydration.