| Summary: | Kenaf (<i>Hibiscus cannabinus</i> L.) is an environmentally friendly, multipurpose fiber crop suitable for osmotic stress tolerance studies. However, the mechanisms of tolerance remain largely unknown. Here, we identified a stress-responsive <i>HcWRKY50</i> gene from kenaf (<i>Hibiscus cannabinus</i> L.) and studied its function and tolerance under drought stress. HcWRKY50 is a nuclear-localized protein. The overexpression of <i>HcWRKY50</i> in <i>Arabidopsis</i> showed higher drought tolerance, exhibiting increased root length and lateral root number, and reduced stomatal density compared with the control lines. The seed germination and seedling growth of <i>HcWRKY50</i> transgenic plants showed less sensitivity to ABA but they became more sensitive to ABA in their stomatal aperture. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis revealed that <i>HcWRKY50</i> regulated ABA signaling by promoting the expression of several key ABA-responsive and stress-responsive genes such as <i>RD29B</i> and <i>COR47</i> in transgenic lines. Taken together, this study demonstrated that the kenaf transcription factor <i>HcWRKY50</i> regulates seed germination and seedling growth and improves drought stress tolerance via an ABA signaling pathway.
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