ERD15 （EARLY RESPONSIVE TO DEHYDRATION 15） is an important regulatory factor involving in plant stress responses. In this study， the MsERD15 gene from alfalfa （Medicago sativa L.） was cloned， and its potential role in stress tolerance was investigated through bioinformatics， expression profiling， and functional analyses. The MsERD15 gene was cloned by RT-PCR， and the physicochemical properties， conserved domains， and phylogenetic relationships of the encoded protein were analyzed. The expression patterns of MsERD15 under drought， high salinity， and abscisic acid （ABA） treatments were examined using qRT-PCR. A MsERD15-YFP fusion construct was generated for subcellular localization analysis， and heterologous expression in yeast was performed to evaluate its stress tolerance function. The results showed that the coding sequence of MsERD15 was 402 bp in length， encoding a protein of 134 amino acids. The gene was significantly induced by drought， high salinity， and ABA treatments. Subcellular localization indicated that the protein was localized in the cytoplasm. Expression of MsERD15 in yeast significantly enhanced tolerance to high salinity and polyethylene glycol （PEG） stress. These results indicated that MsERD15 participated in stress responses and night serve as a candidate gene for improving stress tolerance in alfalfa through molecular breeding.

Alfalfa  /  MsERD15  /  Expression analysis  /  Cytoplasm localization  /  Yeast  /  Abiotic stress