A novel gene with antisalt and anticadmium stress activities from a halotolerant marine green alga Chlamydomonas sp. W80.

A novel gene with antistress activities against both salt (NaCl) and cadmium stresses was isolated from the cDNA library of halotolerant green alga Chlamydomonas sp. strain W80 by a functional expression screening with Escherichia coli. The C-terminal region of this protein is responsible for the antistress activity, because N-terminal truncated clone of this gene retains the antistress activity, and the C-terminal truncated clone loses the activity. In the C-terminal region, there is a histidine and aspartic acid-rich domain (HD-rich domain).