Ectopic overexpression of abiotic stress-induced rice annexin, OsAnn5 potentiates tolerance to abiotic stresses

The current study on putative rice annexin OsAnn5 was tried to know its functional role in the abiotic stress tolerance. For this an in silico analysis of its protein sequence and upstream region was carried out. This results in identification of several probable potential sites for post-translational modifications and cis-elements respectively. We have studied the effect of OsAnn5 in the amelioration of abiotic stress tolerance through heterologous expression in transgenic tobacco and E.coli. It is observed that OsAnn5 over expression leads to enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress through efficient scavenging of the ROS and balanced expression of SOD and CAT antioxidant enzymes in both the systems, under stress treatments. Fluorescent signal for transiently expressed EGFP:OsANN5 fusion protein was localized in the peripheral region of the onion epidermal cells under salt stress treatment. Expression analysis of OsAnn5 under ABA synthesis inhibitor, fluridone and salinity stress revealed that OsAnn5 appears to act through an ABA-independent pathway under salt stress and in support to this 35S:OsAnn5 transgenics seedlings exhibited less sensitivity to externally applied ABA.