The CCCH zinc finger protein gene AtZFP1 improves salt resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana

The CCCH type zinc finger proteins are a super family involved in many aspects of plant growth and development. In this study, we investigated the response of one CCCH type zinc finger protein AtZFP1 (At2g25900) to salt stress in Arabidopsis. The expression of AtZFP1 was upregulated by salt stress. Compared to transgenic strains, the germination rate, emerging rate of cotyledons and root length of wild plants were significantly lower under NaCl treatments, while the inhibitory effect was significantly severe in T-DNA insertion mutant strains. At germination stage, it was mainly osmotic stress when treated with NaCl. Relative to wild plants, overexpression strains maintained a higher K+, K+/Na+, chlorophyll and proline content, and lower Na+ and MDA content. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that the expression of stress related marker genes KIN1, RD29B and RD22 increased more significantly in transgenic strains by salt stress. Overexpression of AtZFP1 also enhanced oxidative and osmotic stress tolerance which was determined by measuring the expression of a set of antioxidant genes, osmotic stress genes and ion transport protein genes such as SOS1, AtP5CS1 and AtGSTU5. Overall, our results suggest that overexpression of AtZFP1 enhanced salt tolerance by maintaining ionic balance and limiting oxidative and osmotic stress.