Effect of submergence on wild-type (Col-0) and ago1-27 mutant

Hypoxia exerts major effects on gene expression, which is reconfigured to meet the needs of the stressed plant. In the recent years the mechanisms of oxygen sensing and transcriptional regulation of a cluster of anaerobic genes was described. We utilized a hypomorphic, post-transcriptional gene silencing defective ARGONAUTE1 (AGO1) mutant, ago1-27, to evaluate the contribution of AGO1 to plant tolerance to submergence and its effects on gene expression. Each treatment is represented by three biological replicates. Each single biologica replicate was obtained by pooling 4 plants. Genotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana used included Col-0 ecotype (wild-type) and the hypomorphic ARGONAUTE1 mutant ago1-27. Plants were grown in pots for three to four weeks at 23°C with a 12/12 h photoperiod at 120 μmol photons m–2 s–1 before being utilized for experiments. Plants were submerged in tanks with a water level of 10 cm above leaf level. The submergence treatment (12h) was carried out in the dark.