CDNA-AFLP ANALYSIS REVEALS INDUCIBLE GENE EXPRESSION IN TOMATO LEAVES IN RESPONSE TO SIMULATED ACID RAIN

Acid rain as an important environmental problem in China and a stressor may cause gene expression, and tomato is one of model plants and the most important vegetable crops in middle and south China Tomato seedlings were exposed for 7 days to simulated acid rain (SiAR) of pH 3.0 and control (pH 5.6). The cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) was carried out to separate differentially expressed gene fragments by using selective base pairs including 8 Mse I primers and 8 EcoR I primers, which allowed the identification and cloning of 45 differential expression transcript-derived fragments (TDFs) corresponding to SiAR, among of which 45 TDFs were successfully cloned and sequenced. 31 of them were found homologies in the NCBI, and 19 displayed homology to genes with known functions, 12 to genes with uncharacterized function. 8 TDFs played significant role in tomato resistance to acid rain-stress. Among of them, TDF5 and TDF8 were stress- inducible transcription factor. TDF4 and TDF20 played important role in resistance to SiAR stress. TDF2 was related to isoprenoid biosynthesis, TDF7 to transcription regulation, TDF11 to metabolism, TDF24 to plant development and defense. Possible roles of the 8 TDFs in the response of tomato to SiAR are also discussed. Moreover, Homologous of amino acid encoded in TDF5 and TDF8 were analyzed.