Effects of heat stress on gene expression in eggplant (<i>Solanum melongema</i> L.) seedlings

Abstract

In order to identify differentially expressed genes involved in heat shock response, cDNA amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) were used to study gene expression of eggplant seedlings subjected to 0, 6 and 12 h at 43°C. A total of 53 of over 2400 bands amplified were differentially expressed between the control and heat treatment; 42 up-regulated and 11 corresponding to genes repressed by heat stress. 24 transcriptderived fragments (TDFs) were successfully isolated, cloned and sequenced. BLAST searching revealed that 15 heat stress response transcripts presented similarities with those that encoded small molecular shock protein, disease resistance protein, stress-related protein, enzymes related to photosynthesis as well as biosynthesis of protein, and so on. The expression patterns of five randomly selected TDFs were confirmed by using Q-PCR experiments. The direct and indirect relationships of genes corresponding to the 15 TDFs with stress tolerance are discussed.

Key words: Eggplant, heat stress, cDNA amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP), transcriptderived fragment (TDF), quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR).