Transcriptome analysis in abiotic stress conditions, using Arabidopsis whole genome tiling array

Abstract

Plants respond and adapt to drought, cold and high-salinity stresses in order to survive. We thought that non-coding RNAs have functions in plant abiotic stress responses and have applied Arabidopsis Affymetrix tiling arrays to study the whole genome transcriptome under drought, cold, high-salinity stress and ABA treatment conditions. The tiling array experiments showed that 7,719 novel transcription units (TUs) exist in the Arabidopsis genome. Most of the novel TUs are hypothetical non-coding RNAs and about 90% of them are mapped on the antisense strand of the AGI code genes in the sense-antisense transcripts (SATs). Interestingly, high correlation of the expression ratios (treated/untreated) was observed in the SATs (AGI code genes)/(novel TUs). We confirmed the presence of several stress- or ABA-inducible TUs on the antisense strand by real-time RT-PCR and Northern analyses. Analysis of biogenesis mechanism and the function of the novel stress-responsive antisense RNAs are in progress.