Synan Abu Qamar
United Arab Emirates University, UAE
Title: Transcriptome Analysis Identifies Candidate Genes in Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Arabidopsis
Biography
Biography: Synan Abu Qamar
Abstract
Plant responses involve changes at the cellular, physiological and molecular levels to adapt with biotic and abiotic stresses. We investigated the effects of combinations of different environmental stresses on the transcriptome level of Arabidopsis genome using comparative microarrays. We showed a unique program of gene expression was activated in response each biotic and abiotic stress. In addition, about 25% cold-, 6% drought-, 12% oxidative stress-, 2.5% heat-, 19% salinity- and 41% osmotic stresses-induced genes were commonly upregulated with B. cinerea treatment; and 33%, 7%, 5.5%, 7.6%, 19% and 48% of genes commonly downregulated with B. cinerea treatment, respectively. We investigated the role of cyclopentenones in mediating responses to B. cinerea infection and abiotic stress through TGA transcription factors, independent of jasmonic acid. Changes in the transcript levels of genes encoding components of the cyclopentenone signaling pathway in response to biotic and abiotic stresses suggest that the oxylipin signal transduction pathway plays a role in plant defense. The overlapping of plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses unravels the complexity of genes and networks, provides new programs for resistance to multiple environmental stresses. Future directions to further analyze the functions of commonly expressed genes in response to environmental stresses; will increase our understanding of the plant stress response.