Chinese Scientists Isolate a Multi-Stress Responsive Gene

Biotic and abiotic factors can have significant impacts on plant growth and development. To identify new stress-tolerance genes in rice (Oryza sativa L.), Yunyun Jiang and colleagues at the Sichuan Agricultural University in China analyzed a global genome expression profiling of the indica cultivar called Peo'ai 64S. The researchers used Affymetrix rice expression chip exposed to cold, drought, and heat stress.

Several genes were found to be up regulated and some were down regulated under stress. One particular gene, the O. sativa L. protein phosphatase2C-l (OsPP2C1) was highly induced in leaf and panicle at the heading and flowering stages in all stresses. Through microarray analysis, the expression profile of OsPP2C1 was obtained and was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The two sets of data matched very well, implying that the gene is a multi-stress sensitive gene in rice. Further analyses of the gene's function confirmed that OsPP2C1 is a novel candidate gene involved in stress tolerance in rice.

The research article is available at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/abstracts/abs2011/20Jul/Jiang%20et%20al.htm.