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Salicornia brachiata Roxb., an extreme halophyte, is a naturally adapted higher plant model for additional gene resources to engineer salt tolerance in plants. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) plays a key role in protecting plants against oxidative stress and thus confers abiotic stress tolerance. A full-length SbpAPX cDNA, encoding peroxisomal ascorbate peroxidase, was cloned from S. brachiata. The open reading frame encodes for a polypeptide of 287 amino acid residues (31.3-kDa protein). The deduced amino acid sequence of the SbpAPX gene showed characteristic peroxisomal targeting sequences (RKRAI) and a C-terminal hydrophobic region of 39 amino acid residues containing a transmembrane domain (TMD) of 23 amino acid residues. Northern blot analysis showed elevated SbpAPX transcript in response to salt, cold, abscisic acid and salicylic acid stress treatments. The SbpAPX gene was transformed to tobacco for their functional validation under stresses. Transgenic plants over-expressing SbpAPX gene showed enhanced salt and drought stress tolerance compared to wild-type plants. Transgenic plants showed enhanced vegetative growth and germination rate both under normal and stressed conditions. Present study revealed that the SbpAPX gene is a potential candidate, which not only confers abiotic stress tolerance to plants but also seems to be involved in plant growth.

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