Abstract:
LHC(Light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein) is an important complex protein in the photosynthetic system. In recent years, it has been found that this protein plays an important role in plant photosynthesis and response to abiotic stress. Duchess blueberry is mainly distributed in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Lesser Xing’an Mountains, and Changbai Mountains of China, and is an excellent germplasm resource. However, there have been few reports on the Lhca gene in Duchess blueberry. This study cloned the VuLhca4 gene from the Duchess blueberry and investigated its expression pattern and function. The results showed that the VuLhca4 gene cloned from the leaves of Duchess blueberry had a total length of 744 bp and encoded 247 amino acids; the subcellular localization results showed that VuLhca4 was localized in chloroplasts; the expression of VuLhca4 in Duchess blueberry was tissue-specific. The expression level of VuLhca4 in leaves was significantly higher than that in roots and stems, and this gene was highly sensitive to low temperature and drought stress. Both low temperature and drought stress could induce the expression of VuLhca4 gene;Transgenic lines of VuLhca4 were obtained by infecting Arabidopsis thaliana using Agrobacterium mediated method. After two treatments of low temperature and drought, the expression level and survival rate of the transgenic strain VuLhca4 were higher than those of the wild type. This provided a theoretical basis for the molecular study of abiotic stress and the mechanism of photosynthesis in Duchess blueberry.