ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SALT-INDUCED GENES FROM THE HALOPHYTIC PLANT Cakile maritima

Abstract

This study was carried out at the Oil Crop Biotechnology Lab (OCBL), the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, during the period from 2011 – 2018. The main objectives were : 1) Using the halophyte Cakile maritima, plant as a source of salt tolerance related genes; 2)Application of the Differential Display and Rapid Amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques to isolate salt tolerance – related gene(s) from Cakile maritima 3)Determination of the nucleotide sequences of the isolated gene(s) and verification of their sequences through alignment with the corresponding sequences in the data base. 4) Sub-cloning of the isolated salt-related gene(s) in the pYES2 expression vector and expression in yeast as eukaryotic model system; 5) Assessing the efficiency of the isolated gene(s) in conferring salt- tolerance to yeast as an indicator of their effects on plants.