Transcriptome Analysis of Drought-Resistant and Drought-Sensitive Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) Genotypes in Response to PEG-Induced Drought Stress

Drought is a major limiting factor of crop yields. In response to drought, plants reprogram their gene expression, which ultimately regulates a multitude of biochemical and physiological processes. The timing of this reprogramming and the nature of the drought-regulated genes in different genotypes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of molecular sciences 2020-01, Vol.21 (3), p.772
Main Authors: Abdel-Ghany, Salah E, Ullah, Fahad, Ben-Hur, Asa, Reddy, Anireddy S N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Chemistry
Crop yield
Cultivars
Drought
Drought resistance
Gene expression
Genes
Genetic engineering
Genomes
Genotype & phenotype
Genotypes
INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Physiology
Polyethylene glycol
polyethylene glycol (PEG)
Proteins
Seedlings
Sorghum
Transcription factors
transcriptome
Transcriptomes
Water shortages
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Summary:Drought is a major limiting factor of crop yields. In response to drought, plants reprogram their gene expression, which ultimately regulates a multitude of biochemical and physiological processes. The timing of this reprogramming and the nature of the drought-regulated genes in different genotypes are thought to confer differential tolerance to drought stress. Sorghum is a highly drought-tolerant crop and has been increasingly used as a model cereal to identify genes that confer tolerance. Also, there is considerable natural variation in resistance to drought in different sorghum genotypes. Here, we evaluated drought resistance in four genotypes to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress at the seedling stage and performed transcriptome analysis in seedlings of sorghum genotypes that are either drought-resistant or drought-sensitive to identify drought-regulated changes in gene expression that are unique to drought-resistant genotypes of sorghum. Our analysis revealed that about 180 genes are differentially regulated in response to drought stress only in drought-resistant genotypes and most of these (over 70%) are up-regulated in response to drought. Among these, about 70 genes are novel with no known function and the remaining are transcription factors, signaling and stress-related proteins implicated in drought tolerance in other crops. This study revealed a set of drought-regulated genes, including many genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are associated with drought tolerance at the seedling stage.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms21030772