Abstract
BackgroundSalinity as a most significant environmental challenges affects the growth and productivity of plants worldwide. In this study, the ionic and iso-osmotic effects of salt stress were investigated in Aeluropus littoralis L., a halophyte grass species from Poaceae family, by cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) technique. To dissect the two different effects (ionic and osmotic) exerted by salt stress, various ionic agents including 200 and 400 mM sodium chloride (NaCl), 200 and 400 mM potassium chloride (KCl) as well as 280 and 406 gl− 1 (− 0.9 and − 1.4 MPa) polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) as their iso-osmotic concentrations were applied.ResultsApplication of KCl and PEG significantly reduced the fresh weight (FW) of A. littoralis seedlings compared to control while NaCl treatment markedly enhanced the FW. At the transcriptome level, different observations of changes in gene expression have been made in response of A. littoralis to ionic and osmotic stresses. Out of 69 transcript derived fragments (TDFs), 42 TDFs belong to 9 different groups of genes involved in metabolism (11.6%), transcription (10.2%), ribosomal protein (8.7%), protein binding (8.7%) transporter (5.8%), translation (5.8%), signal transduction (4.3%), nucleosome assembly protein (2.9%) and catabolism (2.9%). The 44 and 28 percent of transcripts were expressed under ionic stress (NaCl-specific and KCl-specific) and osmotic stress (common with NaCl, KCl and PEG), respectively which indicating a greater response of plants to ionic stress than osmotic stress. Expression pattern of eight candidate TDFs including; SYP81, CAND1, KATN, ISB1, SAMDC, GLY1, HAK18 and ZF30 was evaluated by RT-qPCR at high salinity levels and recovery condition.ConclusionDifferential regulation of these TDFs was observed in root and shoot which confirm their role in salt stress tolerance and provide initial insights into the transcriptome of A. littoralis. Expression pattern of ionic and osmotic-related TDFs at A. littoralis can be taken as an indication of their functional relevance at different salt and drought stresses.
Highlights
Salinity as a most significant environmental challenges affects the growth and productivity of plants worldwide
We report the candidate genes that were differentially expressed in the roots under the Sodium chloride (NaCl), potassium chloride (KCl) and polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) treatments in A. littoralis using cDNA-Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method
Both ionic and osmotic stresses induced by various levels of Potassium chloride (KCl) and PEG significantly reduced the plant fresh weight (FW) weight compared to control (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) while use of 200 and 400 mM NaCl in liquid MS culture medium resulted in significant enhancement of FW compared to other treatments (Fig. 2)
Summary
Salinity as a most significant environmental challenges affects the growth and productivity of plants worldwide. Crop production is adversely affected by various environmental stresses. Physiological and molecular changes occur when plants frequently exposure to different stress conditions. These changes are resultant of massive regulations in the profile of gene expression [1]. The form of a physiological drought is taken in the plant under the salt stress [2]. Restoring the osmotic balance of the cell, damage repair and control by the maintenance of cellular homeostasis, detoxification and signaling to coordinate cell function are mechanisms that plants use in response to salinity and drought stresses [3, 4]
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