Abstract
The cDNA macroarray and oligo-microarray were performed for pst2 (photoautotrohic salt tolerance 2) and wild-type lines grown under a non-stress condition. Higher expression of At2g22760 (bHLH19 gene) was confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. There was another specie of mRNA produced by alternative splicing under the salt stress. The RACE has clarified that transcription initiation site is single. The salt-induced mRNA retained an intron on N-terminal side without excision among two introns, and stop codon and its subsequent initiation codon in the retained region generated the two peptide molecules which looked like cleaved forms of the original protein. Functions of bHLH19 have been examined with plants transgenic with constructs to express this gene. The intracellular localization of bHLH19 was also determined with GFP by transient expression.
