Expression pattern analysis of transcription factors from Aeluropus littoralis in response to salt stress and recovery condition

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses that decrease crop production. Transcription factors (TFs) are prominent regulators in plant responses to abiotic stress. In the present study, the expression pattern of four salt-induced genes encoding transcription factors, namely, MYB, RF2, GTF, and ARID was studied in response to salt stress (sodium chloride) and recovery conditions. The results of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) showed that expression of genes was influenced by salt stress in A. littoralis. The expression level of all genes increased after 6 hours treatment by salt and after that, it drastically decreased with promoting of stress duration in both roots and shoots tissues but in a different manner. The expression of MYB gene in root (68.44) was the higher than shoot (38.57) after 6 hours of salt treatment, while the expression of other studied genes in the shoot was higher than root. At the recovery stage, the up-regulated expression of genes in different tissues gradually decreased and finally gets a stable value. The result showed that the studied transcription factors play an important role in tolerance of A. littoralis to salinity and could be used as an informative resource in the future breeding programs aimed to develop salt tolerant plants. Also, the response of A. littoralis to salt stress depends on the tissue type and duration of plant exposure to salt.