Identification and Isolation of Transcripts in Response to KCl from Aeluropus littoralis

Soil salinity limits crop production by creating osmotic stress and disruption of ion homeostasis، leads to damage at the molecular level and finally cell death. In this study، gene expression analysis based on cDNA-AFLP technique was used to compare the expression profiles of KCl stress at three levels: 0 (control)، 200mM and 400mM، in Aeluropus littoralis which is the closest family to cereal. Among 34 isolated ESTs، 27 ESTs were obtained with the average length of 280 bp. The nucleotide sequences were compared with those in the GenBank database. Approximately 80% of the ESTs show homology to nucleotide or amino acid sequences in the GenBank database and 6 ESTs show no significant similarity in the GenBank database which considered as novel genes. Finally، 27 ESTs were recorded in NCBI database which are included potassium transporter، ribosomal protein، NADH dehydrogenase and golgin. The result of this research is very important to understand molecular basis and resistance mechanisms of drought stress for breeding and genetic engineering to improve crop resistance against stress and the production of resistant plants. EST classification based on responses to stress، will facilitate performance analysis، characterization of responsive genes in plant roots of Aeluropus littoralis to stress in future studies on this herb that is a member of the Poaceae family.