Gene expression profiles of Arabidopsis under the stress of methyl viologen: a microarray analysis.

Methyl viologen (MV) is the main ingredient of Paraquat. It is little known about how plants respond to this compound. To understand the mode of MV action and molecular mechanism of plant response, we performed experiments of microarray on Arabidopsis. In MV treated seedling, approximately 6% genes were altered at mRNA levels, including 818 genes increased, whereas 1,440 genes decreased. Studies of these genes expression patterns provided some new information on the reaction process of plant after the treatment with MV. These included signaling molecules for MV response and reactive oxygen species formation, enzymes required for secondary metabolism and, cell wall maintenance and strategy of photostasis balance. The expression kinetics of the genes induced by MV will provides useful information for the abiotic stress defense mechanism in plants.