ANALYSIS OF A CORE SET OF DROUGHT AND SALT THE DROUGHT AND SALT-RESPONSIVE GENES BY EXPLORING MICROARRAY DATASETS IN CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum)

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to define a core set of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in roots under the drought and salt stress in chickpea (Cicer arietinum). By exploring all potential microarray datasets related to drought and salt stress in chickpea, a total of 41 DEGs (|fold-change| ≥ 15), including 15 highly up-regulated (fold-change ≥ 15) and 26 highly down-regulated (fold-change ≤ -15) genes was screened in drought- and salt- treated roots. By annotating against the assemblies of chickpea, we found that most of 41 DEG-encoded proteins were annotated as functional and regulatory proteins. Next, our results indicated that 41 DEG-encoded proteins were highly variable in physic-chemical features, like sizes, molecular weights, iso-electric points, instability index and grand average of hydropathy. Furthermore, the prediction of subcellular localization suggested that 41 proteins were localized on many major organelles, especially in the nucleus, cytoplasm and plasma membrane. Taken together, our study could provide a significant core set of DEGs related to drought and salt stress in roots of chickpea for further functional characterization.