Ethephon treatment caused SPCP3 gene expression (Chen et al., 2006), reduction of chlorophyll content, decrease of Fv/Fm value, increase of H2O2 amount, and more cell death, and accelerated leaf senescence in detached sweet potato leave. Exogenous application of modulators such as reduced glutathione, EGTA or cycloheximide delay leaf senescence and cell death caused by ethephon. These data suggest that oxidative stress, calcium influx and de novo synthesized protein may influence ethephon-mediated leaf senescence and cell death. When ethephon induced leaf senescence and cell death, granulin-containing cysteine protease SPCP3 gene was induced. Transgenic Arabidopsis system was used to explore the possible physiological role and function of SPCP3. The results showed that ectopic expression of SPCP3 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants caused earlier flowering, less rosette leaves when flowering, higher yellowing silique percentage during harvest, and lower germination percentage than that in control. During drought treatment, transgenic plants also exhibited reduction of Fv/Fm value and relative water content, but an increase in H2O2 content and cell death. These data suggest that ecopic expression of SPCP3 caused altered developmental characteristics and drought stress sensitivity. Previous report suggests that granulin-like domain may play a role in regulating enzymatic activity of granulin-containing cysteine protease (Yamada et al., 2001). In this report we demonstrate that pre-removal of granulin-like domain of SPCP3 does not affect significantly drought stress sensitivity compared to full-length SPCP3 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Based on these data we conclude that oxidative stress, calcium influx, and de novo synthesized proteins may be involved in ethylene signaling leading to leaf senescence and SPCP3 gene expression in detached sweet potato leaves, and ectopic SPCP3 expression in transgenic Arabidopsis plants caused altered developmental characteristics and enhanced drought sensitivity. Granulin-like domain may have no significant influence on SPCP3-mediated effect on drought stress sensitivity.