Gene expression profiling of potato responses to cold, heat, and salt stress

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Abstract
In order to identify genes involved in abiotic stress responses in potato, seedlings were grown under controlled conditions and subjected to cold (4°C), heat (35°C), or salt (100 mM NaCl) stress for up to 27 h. Using an ∼12,000 clone potato cDNA microarray, expression profiles were captured at three time points following initiation of the stress (3, 9, and 27 h) from two different tissues, roots and leaves. A total of 3,314 clones could be identified as significantly up- or down-regulated in response to at least one stress condition. The genes represented by these clones encode transcription factors, signal transduction factors, and heat-shock proteins which have been associated with abiotic stress responses in Arabidopsis and rice, suggesting similar response pathways function in potato. These stress-regulated clones could be separated into either stress-specific or shared-response clones, suggesting the existence of general response pathways as well as more stress-specific pathways. In addition, we identified expression profiles which are indicative for the type of stress applied to the plants.