Rice (Oryza sativa), a salt-sensitive species, has considerable genetic variation for salt tolerance within the cultivated gene pool. Two indica rice genotypes, FL478, a recombinant inbred line derived from a population developed for salinity tolerance studies, and IR29, the sensitive parent of the population, were selected for this study. We used the Affymetrix rice genome array containing 55,515 probe sets to explore the transcriptome of the salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive genotypes under control and salinity-stressed conditions during vegetative growth. Response of the sensitive genotype IR29 is characterized by induction of a relatively large number of probe sets compared to tolerant FL478. Salinity stress induced a number of genes involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway in IR29 but not in FL478. Cell wall-related genes were responsive in both genotypes, suggesting cell wall restructuring is a general adaptive mechanism during salinity stress, although the two genotypes also had some differences. Additionally, the expression of genes mapping to the Saltol region of chromosome 1 were examined in both genotypes. Singlefeature polymorphism analysis of expression data revealed that IR29 was the source of the Saltol region in FL478, contrary to expectation. This study provides a genome-wide transcriptional analysis of two well-characterized, genetically related rice genotypes differing in salinity tolerance during a gradually imposed salinity stress under greenhouse conditions. Salinity is a major problem for both irrigated and rainfed agriculture. Irrigated agricultural systems supply roughly one-third of the world's food supply (Munns, 2002). Therefore, there is a great urgency in addressing the problem of salinity, especially with an increasing global population. Salt stress also is a major problem for rainfed agriculture in coastal areas because of seawater ingress during high tide and the rising shallow saline groundwater, particularly during the dry season. The problem of salinity has been approached through better management practices and introduction of salt-tolerant varieties in the affected areas. Unfortunately, the use of improved irrigation management practices in salt-affected areas has generally proven to be uneconomical and difficult to implement on a large scale. Thus, genetic improvement of salt tolerance of major cereal crops like rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum aestivum), maize (Zea mays), and barley (Hordeum vulgare) appears to be the most feasible and promising strategy for maintaining stable global food production.Rice, the most important cereal crop in many parts of the world, is considered to be salt sensitive (Maas and Hoffman, 1977). Sensitivity of rice to salinity stress varies with the growth stage. In general, rice plants are very sensitive to salinity stress at young seedling stages and less so at reproduction (Flowers and Yeo, 1981;Lutts et al., 1995). From an agronomic point of view, tiller number and number of spikelets per panicle have been reported to be the most sa...

Rice yield is most sensitive to salinity stress imposed during the panicle initiation (PI) stage. In this study, we have focused on physiological and transcriptional responses of four rice genotypes exposed to salinity stress during PI. The genotypes selected included a pair of indicas (IR63731 and IR29) and a pair of japonica (Agami and M103) rice subspecies with contrasting salt tolerance. Physiological characterization showed that tolerant genotypes maintained a much lower shoot Na + concentration relative to sensitive genotypes under salinity stress. Global gene expression analysis revealed a strikingly large number of genes which are induced by salinity stress in sensitive genotypes, IR29 and M103 relative to tolerant lines. We found 19 probe sets to be commonly induced in all four genotypes. We found several salinity modulated, ion homeostasis related genes from our analysis. We also studied the expression of SKC1, a cation transporter reported by others as a major source of variation in salt tolerance in rice. The transcript abundance of SKC1 did not change in response to salinity stress at PI stage in the shoot tissue of all four genotypes. However, we found the transcript abundance of SKC1 to be significantly higher in tolerant japonica Agami relative to sensitive japonica M103 under control and stressed conditions during PI stage.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a salt-tolerant member of the Triticeae. Recent transcriptome studies on salinity stress response in barley revealed regulation of jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and JA-responsive genes by salt stress. From that observation and several other physiological reports, it was hypothesized that JA is involved in the adaptation of barley to salt stress. Here we tested that hypothesis by applying JA to barley plants and observing the physiological responses and transcriptome changes. Photosynthetic and sodium ion accumulation responses were compared after (1) salinity stress, (2) JA treatment and (3) JA pre-treatment followed by salinity stress. The JApre-treated salt-stressed plants accumulated strikingly low levels of Na + in the shoot tissue compared with untreated salt-stressed plants after several days of exposure to stress. In addition, pre-treatment with JA partially alleviated photosynthetic inhibition caused by salinity stress. Expression profiling after a short-term exposure to salinity stress indicated a considerable overlap between genes regulated by salinity stress and JA application. Three JA-regulated genes, arginine decarboxylase, ribulose 1·5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activase and apoplastic invertase are possibly involved in salinity tolerance mediated by JA. This work provides a reference data set for further study of the role of JA in salinity tolerance in barley and other plants species.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a salt-tolerant crop species with considerable economic importance in salinity-affected arid and semiarid regions of the world. In this work, barley cultivar Morex was used for transcriptional profiling during salinity stress using a microarray containing approximately 22,750 probe sets. The experiment was designed to target the early responses of genes to a salinity stress at seedling stage. We found a comparable number of probe sets up-regulated and down-regulated in response to salinity. The differentially expressed genes were broadly characterized using gene ontology and through expression-based hierarchical clustering to identify interesting features in the data. A prominent feature of the response to salinity was the induction of genes involved in jasmonic acid biosynthesis and genes known to respond to jasmonic acid treatment. A large number of abiotic stress (heat, drought, and low temperature) related genes were also found to be responsive to salinity stress. Our results also indicate osmoprotection to be an early response of barley under salinity stress. Additionally, we compared the results of our studies with two other reports characterizing gene expression of barley under salinity stress and found very few genes in common.

Elevated salinity imposes osmotic and ion toxicity stresses on living cells and requires a multitude of responses in order to enable plant survival. Building on earlier work profiling transcript levels in rice (Oryza sativa) shoots of FL478, a salt-tolerant indica recombinant inbred line, and IR29, a salt-sensitive cultivar, transcript levels were compared in roots of these two accessions as well as in the roots of two additional salt-tolerant indica genotypes, the landrace Pokkali and the recombinant inbred line IR63731. The aim of this study was to compare transcripts in the sensitive and the tolerant lines in order to identify genes likely to be involved in plant salinity tolerance, rather than in responses to salinity per se. Transcript profiles of several gene families with known links to salinity tolerance are described (e.g. HKTs, NHXs). The putative function of a set of genes identified through their salt responsiveness, transcript levels, and/or chromosomal location (i.e. underneath QTLs for salinity tolerance) is also discussed. Finally, the parental origin of the Saltol region in FL478 is further investigated. Overall, the dataset presented appears to be robust and it seems likely that this system could provide a reliable strategy for the discovery of novel genes involved in salinity tolerance.

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