C3HC4-type RING finger proteins represent one of the largest transcription factors in the plant kingdom. They are known to play crucial roles in various plant processes like regulation of growth and development, signalling network and abiotic stress etc. The paper attempts to explore and dissect the function of TaZnF in response to abiotic stress like drought and salinity. The gene expression studies revealed the possible role of TaZnF in drought and salt stress response. The expression pattern was found to be similar in root tissue under both drought and salt stress. It was found to increase with the increase in the duration of stress with maximum fold > 3 under drought and > 15 fold in response to salt stress at 8 h. Arabidopsis transgenics overexpressing TaZnF were raised to analyse how the changes in gene expression levels affect plant’s response under stress conditions. TaZnF overexpression conferred increased tolerance to both drought and salt stress as measured by several assays examining their growth and development. The transgenics showed better growth in response to dehydration stress given by both mannitol and Polyethylene glycol (PEG). Further, the transgenics were found to survive when subjected to drought stress for 14 days in contrast to wild type. They also showed high yield under severe drought conditions for one month in comparison to the wild type plants. Similarly the transgenics were found to perform well under salt stress conditions in terms of increased fresh weight, better growth, higher chlorophyll accumulation, higher membrane stability and increased proline content. The expression level of both drought and salt stress related marker genes was found to be higher in transgenics in comparison to wild type plants. Thus these observations clearly indicate that TaZnF functions as a positive regulator of stress response, and can be used as a candidate gene to improve and enhance drought and salt stress tolerance of various crop plants.

中文翻译：

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TaZnF，一种来自小麦的C3HC4型RING锌指蛋白，参与脱水和盐分胁迫

C3HC4型RING指蛋白代表植物界中最大的转录因子之一。众所周知，它们在各种植物过程中起着至关重要的作用，例如调节生长和发育，信号网络和非生物胁迫等。本文试图探索和剖析TaZnF响应干旱和盐碱等非生物胁迫的功能。基因表达研究揭示了TaZnF在干旱和盐胁迫响应中的可能作用。发现在干旱和盐胁迫下根组织中的表达模式相似。发现随着胁迫持续时间的增加而增加，干旱下最大倍数> 3倍，而在8 h时对盐胁迫的响应最大> 15倍。拟南芥转基因过表达提出了TaZnF，以分析基因表达水平的变化如何在胁迫条件下影响植物的响应。钽酸锌通过几种检测干旱和盐分生长和发育的测定，过表达使干旱和盐胁迫的耐受性增强。转基因在甘露醇和聚乙二醇（PEG）共同作用下表现出的脱水胁迫下表现出更好的生长。此外，与野生型相比，发现转基因在经受干旱胁迫14天时能够存活。与野生型植物相比，它们在严重干旱条件下还表现出高产量达1个月。类似地，发现转基因在盐胁迫条件下表现良好，包括增加鲜重，更好的生长，更高的叶绿素积累，更高的膜稳定性和增加的脯氨酸含量。与野生型植物相比，转基因植物中干旱和盐胁迫相关的标记基因的表达水平更高。因此，这些观察清楚地表明TaZnF可以作为胁迫响应的正调节剂，可以用作改善和增强各种作物对干旱和盐胁迫的耐受性的候选基因。