Abstract
Phytohormones are involved in diverse aspects of plant life including the regulation of plant growth, development and reproduction, as well as governing biotic and abiotic stress responses. We have generated a comprehensive transcriptional reference map of the early potato responses to exogenous application of the defence hormones abscisic acid, brassinolides (applied as epibrassinolide), ethylene (applied as the ethylene precursor aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid), salicylic acid and jasmonic acid (applied as methyl jasmonate). Of the 39000 predicted genes on the microarray, a total of 2677 and 2473 genes were significantly differentially expressed at 1 h and 6 h after hormone treatment, respectively. Specific marker genes newly identified for the early hormone responses in potato include: a homeodomain 20 transcription factor (DMG400000248) for abscisic acid; a SAUR gene (DMG400016561) induced in epibrassinolide treated plants; an osmotin gene (DMG400003057) specifically enhanced by aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid; a gene weakly similar to AtWRKY40 (DMG402007388) that was induced by salicylic acid; and a jasmonate ZIM-domain protein 1 (DMG400002930) which was specifically activated by methyl jasmonate. An online database has been set up to query the expression patterns of potato genes represented on the microarray that can also incorporate future microarray or RNAseq-based expression studies.
Highlights
On crops like rice suggest that responses can vary between species and unique complexities in defence regulatory networks have been revealed[13,15,16,17]
Potato yields are affected by a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses and current research is aimed at finding new approaches to alleviate the impact of these threats[1]
Since elicitors impact on gene expression mostly in the first few hours after application[22], we have generated a reference map for the early changes of hormone-dependent gene regulation in potato following exogenous applications of abscisic acid (ABA), aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (ACC) a precursor in ethylene synthesis, epibrassinolide (Epi), methyl jasmonate (Me-JA) and salicylic acid (SA)
Summary
On crops like rice suggest that responses can vary between species and unique complexities in defence regulatory networks have been revealed[13,15,16,17]. The impact of the different basal hormone levels remains elusive, it highlights the need for species-specific hormone studies. The sequencing of the potato genome[19] has enabled the design of a gene expression microarray that encompasses a representative probe set for transcripts of the predicted gene models[20]. The aim of this study was to generate a transcriptional reference map of the early potato responses to exogenous application of five major plant hormones ABA, BL (applied as epibrassinolide [Epi]), ET (applied as aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid [ACC], a precursor in ET biosynthesis), JA (applied as methyl jasmonate [Me-JA]) and SA, and to identify potential marker genes for the individual hormone pathways in potato. An online database to query the expression patterns of potato genes represented on the microarray has been setup at http://ics.hutton.ac.uk/solarray
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