Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Plants have evolved with intricate mechanisms to cope with multiple environmental stresses. To adapt with biotic and abiotic stresses, plant responses involve changes at the cellular and molecular levels. We investigated the role of cyclopentenones in mediating plant responses to environmental stress through TGA (TGACG motif-binding factor) transcription factor, independently from jasmonic acid. Candidate genes were identified by comparing plants inoculated with Botrytis cinerea or treated with heat, salt or osmotic stress with non-inoculated or non-treated tissues. About 2.5% heat, 19% salinity and 41% osmotic stress-induced genes were commonly up-regulated by B. Cinerea treatment and 7.6%, 19% and 48% of genes were commonly down regulated by B. Cinerea treatment, respectively. Our results indicate that plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses are mediated by several common regulatory genes. Comparisons between transcriptome data from Arabidopsis stressedplants support our hypothesis that some molecular and biological processes involved in biotic and abiotic stress response are conserved. Thirteen of the common regulated genes to abiotic and biotic stresses were studied in detail to determine their role in plant resistance to B. cinerea. Moreover, a T-DNA insertion mutant of the Responsive to Dehydration gene (rd20), encoding for a member of the caleosin (lipid surface protein) family, showed an enhanced sensitivity to B. Cinerea infection and drought. Future research directions towards a better dissection of the potential crosstalk between B. cinerea, abiotic stress and oxylipin signaling are of our particular interest.

Biography

Email: arjunsham@uaeu.ac.ae