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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #268644
Title: Differentially expressed genes in Populus simonii x P. nigra in respnse to NaCl stress using cDNA-AFLP

Author
item WANG, LEI - Northeast Agricultural University
item ZHOU, BORU - Northeast Agricultural University
item WU, LILI - Northeast Agricultural University
item Guo, Baozhu
item JIANG, TINGBO - Northeast Agricultural University

Submitted to: Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2011
Publication Date: 4/18/2011
Citation: Wang, L., Zhou, B., Wu, L., Guo, B., Jiang, T. 2011. Differentially expressed genes in Populus simonii x P. nigra in respnse to NaCl stress using cDNA-AFLP. Plant Science. 180:796-801.

Interpretive Summary: Salinity is a major environmental factor limiting plant growth and productivity. Salinity leads to osmotic stress, reactive oxygen damage, and ion toxicity resulting in irreversible cellular damage and photo-inhibition. During exposure to salt stress conditions, almost every aspect of a plant’s important life processes are affected. Salt stress not only causes physiological changes in plants (phenotypic variation), but also affects plant gene expression levels (genotypic variation). The objective of this study was to apply cDNA-AFLP and to identify differentially expressed genes in response to NaCl stress vs. no-stress in order to develop genetic resources for genetic improvement. The differentially expressed genes could be used in further study in characterization and breeding for salinity tolerance and understanding the response to NaCl stress. This study suggests that cDNA-AFLP is a useful tool to serve as an initial step for characterizing transcriptional changes induced by NaCl salinity stress and provides resources for further study and application in genetic improvement and breeding.

Technical Abstract: Salinity is an important environmental factor limiting growth and productivity of plants, and affects almost every aspect of the plant physiology and biochemistry. The objective of this study was to apply cDNA-AFLP and to identify differentially expressed genes in response to NaCl stress vs. no-stress in Populus simonii × P. nigra in order to develop genetic resources for genetic improvement. Selective amplification with 64 primer combinations allowed the visualization of 4407 transcript-derived fragments (TDFs), and 2027 were differentially expressed. Overall, 107 TDFs were re-sequenced successfully, and 86 unique sequences were identified in 10 functional categories based on their putative functions. A subset of these genes was selected for real-time PCR validation, which confirmed the differential expression patterns in the leaf tissues under NaCl stress vs. no stress. Differential expressed genes will be studied further for association with salt or drought-tolerance in Populus simonii × P. nigra. This study suggests that cDNA-AFLP is a useful tool to serve as an initial step for characterizing transcriptional changes induced by NaCl salinity stress in Populus simonii × P. nigra and provides resources for further study and application in genetic improvement and breeding. All unique sequences have been deposited in the Genbank as accession numbers GW672587 to GW672672 for public use.