Differential global genomic changes in rice root in response to low-, middle-, and high-osmotic stresses

Abstract

We used the Affymetrix rice genome array to study the gene expression change in response to low- (T1 treatment), middle- (T2 treatment), and high-osmotic stresses (T3 treatment) in rice root at the transcription level. Our experiment results showed that osmotic stress could induce some genes in rice root with a total of 2,082 genes being regulated transcriptionally by at least one osmotic stress. There was little overlap between the genes responding to the low-, middle-, and high-osmotic stresses. A total of 190 transcripts overlapped among all three osmotic stress treatments with 112 genes being up-regulated and 78 transcripts being down-regulated. A total of 113, 159, and 132 transcription factors (TFs) transcripts were regulated at the transcription level by T1, T2, and T3 treatments, respectively, and the expression of 296 genes encoding TFs was changed in response to at least one osmotic stress treatment. 47, 49, and 32 TFs transcripts overlapped between T1 and T2, T1 and T3, and T2 and T3 treatments, and 20 TFs overlapped among all treatments.