Abiotic stress adaptation in crops is currently one of the most-active
topics in basic and applied biology, particularly because of impending
global adverse climate changes. Several different sets of cis- and
trans-acting factors are known to be involved in stress-responsive
gene control allowing the plants to thrive and produce under stress.
The association of natural antisense transcripts (NATs) and production
and activity of small interfering RNA (siRNA) with such gene control
has recently been demonstrated.
A CustomArray will be used to study the differential expression
of NAT gene pairs during drought stress to identify induced NATs.
Functional validation of NAT-derived siRNA will be carried out with
knockout and knockdown mutants. Identified stress responsive genes
could be used in classical and/or transformation breeding for stress
tolerance.
![pi intranet [staff only]](../../../images/images/piweb_menu_04.gif)
