CsCAT3, a catalase gene from Cucumis sativus, confers resistance to a variety of stresses to Escherichia coli

• Main Authors: Yong Zhou, Shiqiang Liu, Zijian Yang, Yingui Yang, Lunwei Jiang, Lifang Hu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-09-01
• Series: Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment
• Subjects: Cucumis sativus; catalase (CAT); abiotic stress; expression; E. coli
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2017.1360797

Catalase (CAT) is a key scavenging enzyme for the degradation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and plays an important role in the tolerance to diverse abiotic stresses in many different organisms. In this study, we characterized the function of a catalase gene (CsCAT3) previously isolated from Cucumis sativus in the defence against a variety of stresses. Protein alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that CsCAT3 was clustered in the dicot group and shared 41%–95% identity with other plant CATs. Expression analyses revealed that the expression of CsCAT3 was induced by diverse abiotic stresses such as heat, polyethylene glycol, cold and NaCl treatment, as well as by signalling molecules such as abscisic acid (ABA) and H2O2. An Escherichia coli heterologous expression system was constructed to characterize the function of CsCAT3 in vitro. Its overexpression in E. coli could increase the tolerance to heat, cold, salinity and osmotic conditions. These results indicate that CsCAT3 plays important roles in abiotic stress tolerance and that CsCAT3 confers tolerance in E. coli recombinants against abiotic stresses, which may be due to the increased activities of antioxidant enzymes that reduce the oxidative damage caused by stress conditions.