Abstract
Thellungiella halophila is a halophyte, which can grow in 500 mM NaCl medium. Its genes have a high sequence identity (90-95% at cDNA level) to genes of its close relative Arabidopsis thaliana. T. halophila plants show not only salinity tolerance, but also freezing and oxidative stress tolerance. In this study, we investigated various abiotic stress tolerances of T. halophila seedlings compared with A. thaliana seedlings. As a result, T. halophila seedlings showed heat stress tolerance. Although A. thaliana seedlings induced chlorosis completely at 37 degrees for a week, T. halophila seedlings weren't affected their growth by the heat stress. T. halophila has twice guard cells compared with A. thaliana, so that T. halophila seedlings may show heat tolerance. To determine whether T. halophila show heat tolerance at cellular level, we generated callus from both T. halophila and A. thaliana. T. halophila callus showed heat tolerance as well as the seedlings.
