Gene Expression Profiles in Jatropha Under Drought Stress and During Recovery

Jatropha is known for its ability to grow in marginal lands and drought prone areas receiving limited amounts of rainfall. Accordingly, gene discovery in Jatropha will be useful for providing a source of genetic information for the improvement of drought tolerance in crops. In this study, gene expression profiling was performed using a newly developed Jatropha 44 K custom oligomicroarray on Jatropha plants subjected to drought stress and recovery from stress. When the gene expression patterns were compared between those differentially expressed during exposure to drought stress and re-watering, it was possible to identify 332 genes that are involved in the response to dehydration, while 585 genes were found to be significant during recovery, and 374 genes are associated with both dehydration and recovery. Furthermore, representative genes from the three gene categories were compared to those found in other plant species, and a basic understanding on how Jatropha copes with drought and its mechanism for survival in dry conditions is discussed. Taken together, the oligomicroarray that we developed in this study is a useful tool for analyzing expression profiles of Jatropha genes to better understand the molecular mechanism underlying drought stress responses as well as other aspects of molecular studies in Jatropha.