Transcriptome expression profiling in response to drought stress in Ilex paraguariensis leaves

ACEVEDO R. M.; RUIZ O.A.; SANSBERRO P.A.

PLANT OMICS

SOUTHERN CROSS PUBL

Lugar: MELBOURE; Año: 2016

1836-0661

Briefly explain about importance of plant and study. Transcriptome profiling with differential display validation by Real-Time PCR of Ilex paraguariensis under water deficit conditions was used to study the response to drought stress. Potted plants were subjected to well-watered conditions, drought stress, and re-watering. A total of 50 arbitrary primers in combination with 4 anchoring primers were used, and 142 combinations resulted in successful amplification. Analysis of polyacrylamide gels showed 52 differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) ranging in size from 179 to 1.172 bp; 38 DETs were induced, and 14 DETs were repressed in response to drought compared to well-watered conditions. Sequence comparison with data available revealed that 19 % of the fragments showed no homologies,whereas 40.5 % of the total number of fragments had strong similarities with database entries of known functions. The other DETs belonged to unclassified proteins or genes with unknown functions. The identified genes were assigned to specific functional categories based on a careful analysis of the scientific literature. Interestingly, 12 % of the DNA sequences were related to signal transduction, and 2 % of the sequences were identified as transcription factors. Approximately, 12 % of the annotated sequences were involved in stress tolerance and metal homeostasis, while 7 % of the DETs were associated with photosynthesis. Other groups, representing 12 %, included those involved in secondary metabolism, lignin biosynthesis, cell walls, RNA stabilization/chaperone activity. When integrated with physiological data, our results suggest that the transcriptional activity of some of the studied genes could be related to the degree of drought tolerance/susceptibility of I. paraguariensis.