Transcriptional network analysis of osmotic and ionic responses in Arabidopsis

Salt and PEG tolerances of 70 Arabidopsis accessions were screened. Five commonly used Arabidopsis accessions （C24, Col, Ler, SHA, Ws） were selected for further analysis. The results showed that SHA and C24 were relatively tolerant, while Ler and Ws were relatively susceptible to both salt and PEG stress. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that 4105 to 8782 genes exhibited significant expression level changes among five accessions in the presence and absence of stress treatments. The function of these genes were involved in stress response, ROS and metabolic pathways. The detailed networks affected by salt and osmotic stresses were dissected. Salt stress (100mM NaCl), osmotic stress (-1.2 MPa PEG) and control treatments were applied on 10-day-old plants for 4 days. Two biological reps and 5 Arabidopsis accessions were used in this study. In total 30 Agilent microarrays were hybridized with Cyanine-3 (Cy3) labeled probe.