The effect of drought stress on expression of genes coding for transcription factors (ZFP۲۵۲ and DREB۲A) in rice

Background and Aim: Drought stress is the most important environmental factor which limits agricultural products in the worlds as well as Iran. Transcription factors (TFs) can regulate the expression of stress-related genes. In this research, the effect of drought stress in vegetative and reproductive stages on morphological and on expression of genes coding for transcription factors DREB۲A and ZFP۲۵۲ was investigated in rice cultivars Hashemi (sensitive to drought) and Neda (resistance to drought).Methods: This experiment was conducted as factorial based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The drought stress was applied through stopping of irrigation at tillering and heading stages.Results: The results of variance analysis indicated that there were significant differences between rice cultivars in most of morphological traits. The flag leaf length, flag leaf area and plant fresh weight significantly influenced by drought stress. Regarding the tiller number per plant and plant dry weight, there was significant difference between stages which stress applied. The results of Real Time PCR indicated the increased expression of DREB۲A and ZFP۲۵۲ genes in Hashemi cultivar under drought stress at vegetative stages, but the expression of ZFP۲۵۲ gene was reduced under drought stress at reproductive stage. In Neda cultivar, drought stress at vegetative stage increased expression of ZFP۲۵۲ gene but the expression of DREB۲A gene was reduced.Conclusion: Therefore, our study suggests that these two genes might be involved in drought tolerance of this cultivar to drought stress at the reproductive stage.

Keywords:

drought stress , gene expression , rice , transcription factors