Abstract
Moisture deficit stress, one of the abiotic stresses, affects sugarcane growth and development and reduces cane and sugar yields. Transcription Factors (TFs) are master regulatory proteins in all living cells which have the capability of activating or repressing transcription of stress responsive genes in order to activate the stress tolerance mechanism. Study of expression profiles of TF genes which regulate the expression of stress responsive genes help to elucidate the regulatory biology of stress tolerance. Expression of 17 sugarcane TF genes in moisture deficit stress sensitive and tolerant varieties under different moisture deficit stress conditions were quantified in quantitative real-time PCR. Expression of seven TF genes namely, WRKY, NAC, bZIP, DREB, G2 like, Homeobox and TUB showed significant difference between the stress tolerant and susceptible varieties under both moderate and severe moisture deficit stress conditions. In stress tolerant variety, of these seven TF genes, bZIP showed highest expression both under moderate (22.39 fold) and severe stress (13.45 fold) conditions than other TF genes. Expression of bZIP gene in moisture deficit stress susceptible variety was significantly low under moderate (1.09 fold) and severe (3.63 fold) moisture deficit stress condition. GRAS TF gene under moderate stress condition (4 fold) and Homeobox gene under severe stress condition (6.06 fold) showed highest expressions than other TF genes in moisture stress susceptible variety. These differentially expressed TFs among the moisture stress tolerant and sensitive varieties hold promise for improving abiotic stress tolerance in sugarcane through their use as the potential candidate genes in marker assisted selection and in genetic transformation. Key words: Transcription factors, moisture deficit stress, qRT- PCR, sugarcane.
Highlights
Sugarcane is, an important industrial crop, used primarily for production of sugar and ethanol
Expression of 17 sugarcane Transcription Factors (TFs) genes in moisture deficit stress sensitive and tolerant varieties under different moisture deficit stress conditions were quantified in quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR)
A total of 17 primer pairs mentioned in Table 1 were designed to quantify the expression of TFs and their feasibility was checked in PCR with genomic DNA of the selected sugarcane varieties (Co 94008 and Co 775)
Summary
An important industrial crop, used primarily for production of sugar and ethanol. It is being cultivated in more than 100 tropical and subtropical countries (Waclawovsky et al, 2010). Sugarcane is a highly water demanding crop and significant extent of existing growing areas cannot meet the water requirement during the most. Supplementary irrigation is not a favorable option due to the added cost component which adversely affects the profit margin of the farmers. Development of moisture deficit stress tolerant varieties either through conventional breeding or genetic manipulation is the most sustainable solution (Moore, 1987; Jain and Chattopadhyay, 2010) to mitigate the adverse effects comes from abiotic stresses
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