Microarray analysis for studying the Abiotic stress responses in plants

Abstract

Plants respond and adapt to drought, high-salinity and cold stresses in order to survive. Molecular and genomic studies have shown that many genes with various functions are induced by drought, high-salinity and cold stresses, and that the various signaling factors including transcription factors are involved in the stress responses. The development of microarray-based expression profiling methods has allowed significant progress in the characterization of the plant stress response. Genetic engineering of the stress-inducible genes has become one of the promising strategies for the molecular breeding of the stress-tolerant plants. In this review, we highlight the application of the microarray analysis to the understanding of the plant abiotic stress responses and tolerance. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.