Identification and analysis of differentially expressed genes involved in dark-induced photoperiod response and senescence of soybean leaves by suppression subtractive hybridization

A cDNA subtractive library enriched for dark-induced up-regulated ESTs was constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization(SSH) from leaf tissues of soybean cultivar DongNong L13 treated with short-day(8-h light/16-h dark) and long-day(16-h light/8-h dark) conditions.A total of 148 clones were sequenced,representing 76 unique ESTs which corresponded to about 20% of 738 clones from the cDNA library and showed a significant up-regulation of at least three fold verified by dot blot hybridization.The putative functions of ESTs were predicted by Blastn and Blastx.The 43 differentially expressed genes identified by subtractions were classified according to their putative functions generated by Blast analysis.Genetic functional analysis indicated that putative proteins encoded by these genes were related to diverse functions during organism development,which include biological regulation pathways such as transcription,signal transduction and programmed cell death,protein,nucleic acid and carbohydrate macromolecule degradation,the cell wall modification,primary and secondary metabolism and stress response.Two soybean transcription factors enhanced in SD conditions,GAMYB-binding protein and DNA binding protein RAV cDNAs that may be involved in SD soybean photoperiod response,had been isolated using 5'-and 3'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends(RACE)(Genbank Accession numbers DQ112540 and DQ147914).

Physiological and Molecular Changes of Detached Wheat Leaves in Responding to Various Treatments

Leaf senescence is induced or accelerated when leaves are detached. However, the senescence process and expression pattern of senescence-associated genes （SAGs） when leaves are detached are not clearly understood. To detect senescence-associated physiological changes and SAG expression, wheat （Triticum aestivum L.） leaves were detached and treated with light, darkness, low temperature （4℃）, jasmonic acid （JA）, abscisic acid （ABA）, and salicylic acid （SA）. The leaf phenotypes, chlorophyll content, delayed fluorescence （DF）, and expression levels of two SAGs, namely, TaSAG3 and TaSAG5, were analyzed. Under these different treatments, the detached leaves turned yellow with different patterns and varying chlorophyll content. DF significantly decreased after the dark, ABA, JA and SA treatments. TaSAG3 and TaSAG5, which are expressed in natural senescent leaves, showed different expression patterns under various treatments. However, both TaSAG3 and TaSAG5 were upregulated after leaf detachment. Our results revealed senescence-associated physiological changes and molecular differences in leaves, which induced leaf senescence during different stress treatments.