Abiotic stresses, such as drought, high salinity, and cold/freezing, lead plants to produce excess reactive oxygen species. Catalase, a unique hydrogen peroxide-scavenging enzyme, plays a very important role in plants. To characterize the catalase involved in plant response to abiotic stresses, we constructed a cDNA library from 4 degrees C-treated Festuca arundinacea Schreb seedlings and isolated a catalase gene from this library. The cDNA (FaCat1, 1 735 bp) contained an open reading frame of 1 479 bp. BLAST analysis indicated that the deduced amino acid sequence showed 96% identity with that from wheat TaCat1 and 87% identity with that from maize ZmCat2. Northern blotting analysis showed an obvious increase of FaCat1 transcripts in leaves in contrast with roots. Time-course analysis of the expression of FaCat1 in F. arundinacea leaves showed that FaCat1 expression was upregulated in cold- and salt-stressed leaves, with the FaCat1 transcripts accumulating mostly at 4 or 2 h after cold or salt stress, respectively. No significant changes in FaCat1 transcription were observed in dried leaves and inhibition of FaCat1 transcription was found in abscisic acid (ABA)-treated leaves, indicating that the FaCat1 gene is differentially expressed during cold, high salt, drought, and ABA treatment in F. arundinacea leaves.