Overexpression of Brassica campestris BcICE1 gene increases abiotic stress tolerance in tobacco

In this study, a cDNA of ICE1 (inducer of CBF expression 1) gene, named BcICE1, was isolated from Brassica campestris ‘Longyou 6’. The deduced protein has 499 amino acids containing a typical bHLH domain and is highly identical with AtICE1 (85.9%) from Arabidopsis thaliana. BcICE1 is located in the nucleus. The activities of SOD, CAT, POD, and APX and the transcriptional levels of SOD, CAT, and POD genes were higher in BcICE1-transgenic tobacco than in wild-type (WT) tobacco under cold stress. Compared with WT tobacco, proline, soluble sugar, and chlorophyll were enhanced, whereas malondialdehyde and relative conductivity were decreased in BcICE1-transgenic tobacco. The overexpression of BcICE1 in tobacco increased the expression of CBF1, CBF2, and other stress-related genes. Moreover, under salt and PEG (25%) stress, the activities of APX and GPX and content of soluble sugar and chlorophyll in BcICE1-transgenic tobacco were higher than those in WT tobacco. Our results suggest that BcICE1 plays an important role in the response to abiotic stress.