Comparative expression analysis of roots of two soybean cultivars with contrasting drought-tolerant phenotype under well-watered and dehydration conditions.

To understand the responses of plants to environmental stresses will help mitigate the problems via creating stress-tolerant crop cultivars. We have carried out comparative expression analysis of roots of two soybean varieties Williams 82 and DT2008 that have constrasting drought-responsive phenotype under dehydration and well-watered (control) conditions. Affymetrix’s whole Soybean Gene Expression Microarray (66K) was used. The Williams 82 and DT2008 soybean plants were grown for 14 days in the vermiculite soil under greenhouse conditions. The whole plants of 14-d-old plants were detached and exposed to dehydration on KimTowel papers for 0 (well-watered, control), 2 and 10 h. All roots of independent 14-d-old plants were collected. Total RNA was prepared and used for the microarray hybridization. Three independent biological replicates were used for each plant sample.