Identification of a rice zinc finger protein whose expression is transiently induced by drought, cold but not by salinity and abscisic acid

A C2H2-type zinc finger protein gene ZFP245 was cloned by RT-PCR approach from cold treated rice seedlings. ZFP245 is 712 bp in length and encodes a 24.5 KDa protein, which has 35% identity in amino acid with SCOF-1, a cold-inducible zinc finger protein from soybean. By database search, ZFP245 was mapped on chromosome 7 and clustered together with another C2H2 zinc finger gene. Tissue expression analysis showed that ZFP245 was constitutively expressed in various rice tissues including roots, stems, leaves and spikes. The semi-quantitative-RT-PCR assay revealed ZFP245 was strongly induced after 6 h exposure to cold and drought stresses, and then reduced to the baseline. However, ZFP245 was not regulated by high salt or abscisic acid treatment. The promoter sequence of 1017 nucleotides, upstream of ZFP245, was cloned directly by PCR approach. Sequence analysis revealed a CRT/DRE element was found within the ZFP245 promoter region. Taken together, ZFP245, as the first identified C2H2-type zinc finger protein involved in stress response in monocots probably plays a role as a transcription regulator in plant cold and drought responses through an ABA-independent pathway.