Gene Expression Patterns of some Transcription Factors (MYB and WRKY) under Salt Stress in the seedling stage of Alfalfa using qPCR

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Assistant Professor Seed and Plant Improvement Institute Department, Safiabad Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center, AREEO, Dezful, Iran.

Abstract

Salinity is one the major problems for production and increasing the area under cultivation around the world and Iran. Understanding of defense mechanisms and genes involved could improve tolerance to different stresses in crops by using some methods such as genetic manipulation. Regulation in the gene transcription phase is one the most methods to control stress in plants. Transcription factors thought binding with transcription elements in DNA promoters regulate genes expression which plays a key role in tolerance to salinity stress in plants. An experiment was conducted to evaluate four genes expression of transcription factors of MYB (MYB14 and MYB112) and WRKY (WRKY53 and WRKY70) in leaf and root tissue of Yazdi genotype (tolerant genotype to salinity) and Diabloverde (sensitive genotype to salinity) under salinity stress. The selection of these genes was based on the statistical analysis of the microarray data that was related to a study on the effect of salinity stress on Medicago truncatula. Short-term salinity stress caused a significant variation in the expression of these genes in leaf and root tissues of Yazdi and Diabloverde genotypes. Real-Time PCR analysis revealed that higher expression of transcription factors (MYB112 and MYB14) associated with more tolerance to salinity stress. This finding could be assisted plant breeders to apply these transcriptional factors to choose tolerant genotypes to salinity in alfalfa.

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