Watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ) late-embryogenesis abundant group 3 protein, ClLEA3-1, responds to diverse abiotic stresses

Plants are exposed to various environmental stresses such as drought, cold, and high salinity during their sessile lifetime. The Late-Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins are involved in protection against different environmental stresses. LEA proteins have been classified into 7 groups based on sequence similarity and conserved domains. Among these groups, the functions of only group 1, 2 and 3 genes in regulating abiotic stress tolerance have been investigated. The productivity of watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ), the most economically important cucurbitaceous crop, is affected by environmental stresses, but the functions of environmental stress-related genes in watermelon have not been reported yet. Therefore, abiotic and biotic stress-related research on watermelon is necessary. In this study, we selected Cl017745 (ClLEA3-1) as a representative group 3 LEA protein based on the watermelon database ( http://www.icugi.org ) and reported its expression patterns in response to diverse stresses and ABA treatment. Tissue-specific expression pattern of ClLEA3-1 was induced by dehydration, low-temperature, high-salinity, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment, but expression of ClLEA3-1 was not increased by inoculation with a pathogen. Subcellular localization analysis showed that ClLEA3-1 was a cytosolic protein. Therefore, we recommend that ClLEA3-1 ( Cl017745 ) can be used as an abiotic stress marker gene in watermelon.