Project Number: 6440-21000-001-03
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 01, 2008
End Date: Sep 30, 2011

Objective:
To characterize genetic expression profiles of drought stressed tall fescue containing novel endophytes strains and verify gene expression profiles of selected genes.

Approach:
Tall fescue, KY31, containing six novel endophyte strains, plus the endophyte-free and KY31 with wild-type endophyte will be evaluated under different drought stress regimes to characterize differences in gene expression profiles and correlate these with phenotypic response to the treatments. The KY31 lines differ in their response to drought stress and the goal is to compare gene expression levels and identify putative genes that are over- or under-expressed in response to the stress experiments that correlate with increased drought tolerance. ARS is developing an expression profiling tool for tall fescue for analysis of whole genome expression comparisons. This will be used to compare expression of the different KY31 lines containing the different endophyte strains to determine the effect of gene expression, using real time PCR techniques, in drought tolerance response. Three replications comparing non-stressed (beginning of the experiment) and three replications of stressed material for each of the lines will be evaluated. RNA will be isolated from pseudostems of each line for each treatment for analysis.