MICROARRAY ANALYSIS OF RICE FOR SALT STRESS TOLERANCE

¹ Department of Biochemistry, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721

²Department of Plant Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721

Rice is a salt-sensitive crop and soil salinity in irrigated land is a primary factor depressing its yield. Our aim is to understand the molecular and genetic control for gene expression under salinity conditions in salt-tolerant rice. We have prepared the root cDNA libraries from Pokkali (salt-tolerant indica line) seedlings stressed using 150 mM NaCl. Under this condition, Pokkali continued to grow but the other salt-sensitive varieties such as IR29 were significantly stressed. DNA microarrays containing virtually every stress-regulated transcript of Pokkali root will be made. This will be done to investigate the temporal program of gene expression accompanying the metabolic shift from normal growth to salinity-stress. These arrays will also be useful to analyze and compare stress responses between salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive varieties.