title: Engineering drought and salinity tolerance in plants: lessons from genome-wide expression profiling in Arabidopsis.
abstract: World food security is increasingly dependent on continuous crop improvement and, in particular, the development of crops with increased drought and salinity tolerance. The completed genomic sequence of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the development of whole-genome microarrays, together with increasing repositories of publicly available data and data analysis tools, have opened new avenues to genome-wide systemic analysis of plant stress responses. Here we outline examples of how this full-genome expression profiling can contribute to our understanding of complex stress responses and the identification and evaluation of novel transgenes that could hold the key to the development of commercially viable and sustainable crop plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Denby
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gehring
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D024861:Genetic Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D018745:Genome, Plant; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D018526:Plant Transpiration / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D012965:Sodium Chloride