*4.2. Multiple Sequence Alignment and Phylogenetic Analysis of CsLEA Family Proteins.*

The alignment of the *C. songorica* and Arabidopsis LEA protein sequences was performed using the ClustalW software [56] in the MEGA 6 program with a default parameter setting. After sequence alignment and pair-wise deletion of gaps as previously described [57], a phylogenetic tree was constructed using the Neighbor Joining (NJ) algorithm with bootstrap analysis of 1000 trials [57,58]. Multiple sequence alignment and sequence homology analysis of *C. songorica* and Arabidopsis Dehydrin proteins were performed using the ClustalW algorithm embedded in the DNAMAN version 6 program as instructed (Lynnon Corporation, Quebec, Canada).
