Zahra Zinati - Department of Agroecology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Darab, Shiraz University, Iran
Elham Ashrafi-Dehkordi - Department of Crop Production and Plant Breeding, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University,Shiraz, Iran

Identification of the novel genes is an indispensableprerequisite for developing rice varieties with increased salinity tolerance. To this end, a comparative transcriptome analysis of the extremely tolerant and extremely sensitive recombinant inbred lines (RILs) bulks derived from a cross between salt-tolerant variety CSR 27 and salt-sensitivevariety MI 48 was carried out using microarray data analysis and motif promoter analysis. According to the results, 417and 169 genes showed differential expression in the tolerant bulk and sensitive bulk respectively under salt stress conditions. Among DEGs, 6 DEGs were significantly up-regulated in salt sensitive RILs but were significantlydown-regulated in salt tolerant RILs. It points to their role as negative regulators of the salinity tolerance mechanism. Using MEME, we detected seven significant motifs. Moreover, the majority of motifs have relationship with AP2/ERF domain transcription factor.It shows that ERF family transcription factor is the upstream components in a transcriptional cascade that modulate gene expression in response to salinitystress. The GOMO analysis for the motifs discovered by MEME identified several interesting biological functions such as regulation of transcription, DNA-dependent, DNA replication, mismatch repair and translation. Moreover, these motifs were involved in molecular functions, including transcription factor activity and structural constituent of ribosome.This analysis provides useful information about cis-elements in the genes associated with salinity stress in rice.

microarray data analysis, promoter analysis, rice, salt stress