Overexpression of OsLea14-A improves the tolerance of rice and increases Hg accumulation under diverse stresses

The group 5 LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) proteins are an atypical LEA protein group, which is associated with resistance to multiple stresses. In this study, OsLea14-A gene was isolated from Oryza sativa L., which encodes a 5C LEA protein with 151 amino acids. The qPCR analysis showed that OsLea14-A expressed in all tissues and organs at all times. The expression of OsLea14-A in the panicles of plumping stage were dramatically increased. The heterologous expression of OsLea14-A in Escherichia coli improved its growth performance under salinity, desiccation, high temperature, and freeze-thaw stresses. The purified OsLea14-A protein can protect LDH activity from freeze-thaw-, heat-, and desiccation-induced inactivation. The overexpression of OsLea14-A in rice improved tolerance to dehydration, high salinity, CuSO 4 , and HgCl 2 , but excluding K 2 Cr 2 O 7 . The analysis of metal contents showed that the accumulation of OsLea14-A protein in transgenic rice could increase the accumulation of Hg, but could not increase the accumulation of Na, Cr, and Cu after HgCl 2 , NaCl, K 2 Cr 2 O 7 , and CuSO 4 treatment, respectively. These results suggested that OsLea14-A conferred multiple stress tolerance and Hg accumulation, which made it a possible gene in genetic improvement for plants to acclimatize itself to multiple stresses and remediate Hg-contaminated soil.