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. 2016 Jun;6(1):99.
doi: 10.1007/s13205-016-0416-8. Epub 2016 Apr 8.

Investigating the effect of drought stress on expression of WRKY1 and EREBP1 genes and antioxidant enzyme activities in lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis L.)

Mehdi Rahimi  1 , Mojtaba Kordrostami  2 , Mahmood Maleki  3 , Mohsen ModaresKia  3
Affiliations

Investigating the effect of drought stress on expression of WRKY1 and EREBP1 genes and antioxidant enzyme activities in lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis L.)

Mehdi Rahimi et al. 3 Biotech. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Drought stress is a severe environmental constraint to plant productivity. In this study, gene expression of WRKY1 and EREBP1 genes and activity of two enzymes were investigated in two genotypes, G9 (as resistance) and G12 (as susceptible) of 10 days-old lemon balm seedlings. Experiments were done according to factorial design on the base of completely randomized design with three replications for expression analysis and enzyme assays. Seedlings were cultured in MS medium suspensions, including 0, 3, 6, 12 and 15 % w/v PEG 6000. Leaf samples were subsequently collected at 0, 3, 6, 24, 48, 72 h after culture. According to the results of the enzyme assay, SOD activity in resistant genotype was more than in sensitive one. POD activity was high in G9 in severe drought condition and in G12 this activity was increased at initial times of drought stress. The survey results revealed that the expression levels of both genes, EREBP1 and WRKY1, in G9 variety were more than G12, and in this respect we can say that the G9 variety is more resistant to drought.

Keywords: Gene expression; Peroxidase; Polyethylene glycol (PEG); Superoxide dismutase.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest in the publication.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The relative amounts of SOD (a) and POD (b) enzymes in both resistant and susceptible genotypes. Means with uncommon letters in each column have significant difference using Duncan test at the 5 % level. Data points and error bars represent mean and standard deviation from three independent experiments
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
EREBP1 gene expression level in tolerant (a) and susceptible (b) genotypes. Asterisk showed >3-fold increase in the expression of gene. Data points and error bars represent mean and standard deviation
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
WRKY1 gene expression level in tolerant (a) and susceptible (b) genotypes. Asterisk showed >3-fold increase in the expression of gene. Data points and error bars represent mean and standard deviation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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