Chickpea C2H2-Type Zinc Finger Protein ZF2 is a Positive Regulator in Drought Response in Arabidopsis

Drought is a major abiotic stress limiting agricultural crops production worldwide. In our study, we isolated a novel C 2H2-type zinc finger protein gene ZF2 from chickpea. ZF2 consisted of 232 amino acids with two QALGGH motifs in Cys2/His2 zinc finger domain. Transient expression analysis of ZF2:GFP fusion protein showed that ZF2 was a nuclear localized protein. In the yeast assay system, the full-length of ZF2 did not show transcriptional activation. Expression of ZF2 gene was enhanced by treatments of several abiotic stresses and phy-tohormones. The promoter region of ZF2 contained multiple stress-and hormone-related cis-elements. Overex-pression of ZF2 in Arabidopsis significantly improved the root length and fresh weight at seedling stage and enhanced the survival rates and proline content under drought treatment. These results indicated that ZF2 func-tioned as a positive regulator in drought response.