Dehydrin (DHN) is a multi-family of proteins present in plants that is produced in response to cold and drought stress.
[2] They are stress proteins with a high number of charged amino acids that belong to the Group II Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) family.
However, the first direct genetic evidence of dehydrin playing a role in cellular protection during osmotic shock was not observed until 2005, in the moss, Physcomitrella patens.
In order to show a direct correlation between DHN and stress recovery, a knockout gene was created, which interfered with DHNA’s functionality.
In a particular study dehydrin-like proteins found in the mitochondria were upregulated in drought and cold treatments of cereals.