Mantri Nitin L, Ford Rebecca, Coram Tristan E, Pang Edwin C K
RMIT University, School of Applied Sciences, Biotechnology and Environmental Biology, Building 223, Level 1, Plenty Road, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia.
BMC Genomics. 2007 Sep 2;8:303. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-8-303.
Cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) has a narrow genetic base making it difficult for breeders to produce new elite cultivars with durable resistance to major biotic and abiotic stresses. As an alternative to genome mapping, microarrays have recently been applied in crop species to identify and assess the function of putative genes thought to be involved in plant abiotic stress and defence responses. In the present study, a cDNA microarray approach was taken in order to determine if the transcription of genes, from a set of previously identified putative stress-responsive genes from chickpea and its close relative Lathyrus sativus, were altered in chickpea by the three abiotic stresses; drought, cold and high-salinity. For this, chickpea genotypes known to be tolerant and susceptible to each abiotic stress were challenged and gene expression in the leaf, root and/or flower tissues was studied. The transcripts that were differentially expressed among stressed and unstressed plants in response to the particular stress were analysed in the context of tolerant/susceptible genotypes.
The transcriptional change of more than two fold was observed for 109, 210 and 386 genes after drought, cold and high-salinity treatments, respectively. Among these, two, 15 and 30 genes were consensually differentially expressed (DE) between tolerant and susceptible genotypes studied for drought, cold and high-salinity, respectively. The genes that were DE in tolerant and susceptible genotypes under abiotic stresses code for various functional and regulatory proteins. Significant differences in stress responses were observed within and between tolerant and susceptible genotypes highlighting the multiple gene control and complexity of abiotic stress response mechanism in chickpea.
The annotation of these genes suggests that they may have a role in abiotic stress response and are potential candidates for tolerance/susceptibility.
栽培鹰嘴豆（Cicer arietinum）的遗传基础狭窄，这使得育种者难以培育出对主要生物和非生物胁迫具有持久抗性的新型优良品种。作为基因组图谱绘制的替代方法，微阵列最近已应用于作物物种，以鉴定和评估被认为参与植物非生物胁迫和防御反应的假定基因的功能。在本研究中，采用了cDNA微阵列方法，以确定鹰嘴豆及其近缘种草香豌豆中一组先前鉴定的假定胁迫响应基因的转录是否因干旱、寒冷和高盐这三种非生物胁迫而在鹰嘴豆中发生改变。为此，对已知对每种非生物胁迫具有耐受性和敏感性的鹰嘴豆基因型进行了胁迫处理，并研究了叶、根和/或花组织中的基因表达。在耐受性/敏感性基因型的背景下，分析了在受胁迫和未受胁迫植物之间因特定胁迫而差异表达的转录本。
干旱、寒冷和高盐处理后，分别观察到109、210和386个基因的转录变化超过两倍。其中，分别有2、15和30个基因在研究干旱、寒冷和高盐的耐受性和敏感性基因型之间一致地差异表达（DE）。在非生物胁迫下，耐受性和敏感性基因型中差异表达的基因编码各种功能和调节蛋白。在耐受性和敏感性基因型内部以及之间观察到应激反应的显著差异，突出了鹰嘴豆中非生物胁迫反应机制的多基因控制和复杂性。
这些基因的注释表明它们可能在非生物胁迫反应中起作用，并且是耐受性/敏感性的潜在候选基因。
