Abstract:Glutathione peroxidases (GPXs) are one of the crucial enzymes scavenging reactive oxygen species in plant cells and closely related to plant stress tolerance. In this study, six MaGPX genes of mulberry (Morus alba L.) were cloned from ‘Hong guo 2’ by RTPCR. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the MaGPX protein sequences had a typical domain of plant GPXs and Cys residue, with a high similarity to the AtGPX from Arabidopsis thaliana. The subcellular localization results indicated that MaGPX1, MaGPX2, MaGPX3 and MaGPX6 were possibly located in the plasma membrane, cytosol and nucleus, while MaGPX4 was chloroplastic isoenzyme and MaGPX5 was potentially active in the plasma membrane, suggesting that MaGPX might have diversified function. The qRTPCR results showed that MaGPX genes were detected in shoots, leaves, roots, staminate flowers, pistillate flowers and fruits. MaGPX1, MaGPX3 and MaGPX5 were highly expressed in roots and staminate flowers. MaGPX2 transcripts were high in staminate flowers. MaGPX4 showed the high transcription levels in leaves and staminate flowers. Transcripts of MaGPX6 were mainly accumulated in fruits. The expression of MaGPX genes was induced by drought stress and the expression levels varied with treatment time and stress degree. MaGPX1, MaGPX2 and MaGPX3 might play a significant role in scavenging ROS and maintaining intracellular redox balance. These results will contribute greatly to further study of the physiological function of MaGPX genes in Morus alba L.