Abstract:Dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) proteins are important transcription factors and play an important role in plant stress response and signal transduction. In this study, with Salicornia bigelovii Torr’s genomic DNA as the template, a genetic fragment coding for the conserved AP2 domain of a DREB-like protein was isolated by using PCR technology. Whith the primers designed on the basis of the genetic fragment sequence, a full-length cDNA, termed as SbDREB (GenBank accession number : JF894301 ), was cloned using its salt-treated stem cDNA as the template and by applying rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) methods. SbDREB contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,206 bp long encoding 284 amino acids residues and was classified into BREB A-6 group of DREB protein based on phylogenetic analysis. The alignment analysis with other homologous sequences from higher plants indicated that the predicted protein sequence contained a typical AP2/ EREBP DNA-binding domain near the N-terminal region and shared high homology with other proteins within theAP2/ EREBP domain. Quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) experiments showed that expression level of SbDREB was up-regulated after treatment by high salt, dehydration and the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) ,whicle down-regulated by low temperature. These results suggested that SbDREB may play an essential role as a DREB transcription factor in regulation of abiotic stress-responsive signaling in S. bigelovii Torr..