Identification of genes involved in the drought adaptation and recovery in Portulaca oleracea by differential display

DANDREA, R.; TRIASSI, A; CASAS. M I; ANDREO CS; LARA, M.V.

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER

Lugar: Paris; Año: 2015 vol. 90 p. 39 - 49

0981-9428

Portulaca oleracea is one of the richest plant sources of u-3 and u-6 fatty acids and other compoundspotentially valuable for nutrition. It is broadly established in arid, semiarid and well-watered fields, thusmaking it a promising candidate for research on abiotic stress resistance mechanisms. It is capable ofwithstanding severe drought and then of recovering upon rehydration. Here, the adaptation to droughtand the posterior recovery was evaluated at transcriptomic level by differential display validated by qRTPCR. Of the 2279 transcript-derived fragments amplified, 202 presented differential expression. Ninety ofthem were successfully isolated and sequenced. Selected genes were tested against different abioticstresses in P. oleracea and the behavior of their orthologous genes in Arabidopsis thaliana was alsoexplored to seek for conserved response mechanisms. In drought adapted and in recovered plantschanges in expression of many protein metabolism-, lipid metabolism- and stress-related genes wereobserved. Many genes with unknown function were detected, which also respond to other abioticstresses. Some of them are also involved in the seed desiccation/imbibition process and thus would be ofgreat interest for further research. The potential use of candidate genes to engineer drought toleranceimprovement and recovery is discussed.