Abstract: Heavy metal cadmium pollution in soil leads to the decline of crop yield and quality, which seriously threatens human health. AtCHiC gene encodes a chitinase in GH-18 family of Arabidopsis thaliana, and it is unclear whether it participates in the regulation of cadmium stress response in plants. In this study, the promoter region of AtCHiC was cloned by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the ProAtCHiC-GUS fusion expression vector was constructed. The fusion expression vector was transformed into wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana by floral dip method, and homozygous positive transgenic plants were identified. Further, the transgenic plants were treated with heavy metal cadmium stress, and it was found that it significantly induced the increase of GUS activity in plants, which indicated that AtCHiC gene might be involved in the regulation of cadmium stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana. This study provides an important basis for further studying the function of AtCHiC gene under abiotic stress.
Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; AtCHiC gene; cadmium stress; vector construction; GUS staining