GsLTP, a Non-Specific Lipid Transfer Protein from Glycine soja, Enhances Drought and Salt Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Tobacco

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Background: Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) mainly exist in plant cell walls where they make an important impact in the transport of diverse lipophilic compounds. They have an important effect on the stress tolerance of plants by mediating plant responses to environmental stimuli and cell signal transduction pathways. Although the functions of several LTPS in different plant species have been identified, little is known about the biochemical and enzymatic activities of LTP family members in soybeans.Results: Herein, GsLTP was identified from Glycine soja using soybean gene microarray expression and screened in a salt stress expressed sequence tag (EST) library. The 369 bp open reading frame (ORF) encodes a protein of 122 amino acids. The cDNA sequence shares similarity with LTP genes in other plants such as soybean (93%) and Vigna (72%). The function of the gene was characterized in transgenic tobacco. Various physiological characteristics under different environmental stresses were investigated. We discovered that overexpression of GsLTP enhanced tolerance to drought and salt stresses.Conclusions: Our results indicate that GsLTP plays an important role in multiple abiotic signalling pathways, and provide a theoretical basis and practical gene resource for crop breeding.