Effects of CaASR3 Gene Silencing on Drought Resistance in Pepper

Taking ‘Zunla-1’pepper as test materials,the silencing of CaASR3 pepper plants was approached by using virus-induced gene silencing（VIGS）and the role of this gene in regulating responses to drought was investigated,in order to provide reference for further study of drought resistance mechanism in pepper.The results showed that the expression level of CaASR3 was significantly decreased following CaASR3 silencing at 0,3,6,12hours.After drought treatment,in contrast to control plants,the leaves of CaASR3-silenced plants showed more water loss,peroxidase activity,proline content,soluble sugar content and relative conductivity increased significantly,and the relative water content decreased significantly,indicated that the CaASR3 silencing resulted in the attenuation of drought tolerance in pepper.Thus,the CaASR3 gene was involved in the regulation of drought resistance pathway in pepper.This study lay a foundation for improving drought tolerance of pepper in molecular breeding.