Stipa purpurea, an endemic forage of the grass family in the Tibetan Plateau, is highly resistant to drought. Dehydrins (DHNs) are stress proteins involved in plant protective reactions against environmental stress. In this study, the full-length DHN open reading frame (ORF) cloned from S. purpurea, named SpDHN1, was 816 nucleotides length and encoded a protein of 271 amino acids. Phylogenetic and sequence characterization analysis revealed that the DHN gene was an SK3-type DHNs. Subcellular localization analysis indicated that SpDHN1 was localized in the cytoplasm and the plasma membrane. SpDHN1 function analysis provided new evidence to support the antioxidation of SpDHN1 in plant responses drought stress. Ectopic expression of SpDHN1 in Arabidopsis thaliana plants showed more resistance to drought stress than the wild-type, indicating that SpDHN1 may be a potential candidate gene for genetic improvement of crops to improve stress tolerance. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.