Overexpression of mango MiMFT inhibits seed germination and enhances abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis

• The MFT gene in mango was identified and characterized. • The expression patterns of the MFT gene were analysed in mango. • Overexpression of MiMFT inhibited seed germination. • Overexpression of MiMFT enhanced the abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis . Mother of FT and TFL1 ( MFT ) is a member of the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) family, which plays important roles in seed development, the stress response, and flowering time regulation. In the present study, the MFT homologous gene MiMFT was identified in mango cultivar ‘SiJiMi’. The promoter of MiMFT contained phytohormone-, plant growth-, plant development-, and abiotic stress-responsive elements. MiMFT was significantly highly expressed in the seeds, and its expression strongly increased in response to polyethylene glycol (PEG) and NaCl treatment. Overexpression of MiMFT in Arabidopsis adversely affected seed germination and upregulated seed germination-related gene expression, but it did not affect flowering. Additionally, the salt and drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis lines overexpressing MiMFT considerably increased, and these plants presented decreased sensitivity to abscisic acid (ABA), with significantly increased expression of stress-related and ABA signaling pathway genes. Subcellular localization analysis showed that MiMFT strongly localizes in the nucleus, and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays showed that MiMFT proteins interact with Mi14–3–3D2. In summary, MiMFT was determined to be involved in seed germination as well as in the response to abiotic stress.