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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #158206
Title: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENOMICS OF THE DESICCATION TOLERANT MOSS TORTULA RURALIS

Author
item WOOD, ANDREW - SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIV
item Oliver, Melvin

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2003
Publication Date: 7/15/2004
Citation: Wood, A.J., Oliver, M.J. 2004. Molecular biology and genomics of the desiccation tolerant moss tortula ruralis. In: Wood, A.J., Oliver, M.J., Cove D.J. editors. New Frontiers in Bryology. Boston/Dordrecht/London:Kluwer. p. 80-99.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The molecular, cellular and biochemical responses of plants to water-deficit stress are the central, and long-term, interest of our respective research programs. We utilize the desiccation-tolerant moss Tortula ruralis (Hedw.) Gaerten., Meyer and Scherb. as an experimental model for studying post-transcriptional gene control, molecular and biochemical responses to abiotic stress, cellular repair mechanisms in plants and as a source of novel tolerance-associated genes. In this chapter we will introduce the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of desiccation-tolerance in mosses, describe the molecular and genomics tolls that have been developed for T. ruralis (such as EST databases, cDNA libraries, and microarrays), and discuss the expression analysis of several cDNA clones (i.e. the rehydrins Tr288 and Tr213, the aldehyde dehydrogenases Aldh7B6 and Aldh21A1, and the early light-inducible proteins Elipa and Elipb)that are associated with desiccation-stress.