The Arabidopsis 25K GeneChip (ATH1, Affymetrix) was used to make a survey of the variation of the transcriptional profiles among 5 Chinese natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana under cold treatment. In normal growth condition, the expression level of 2.26% (513 genes in the population from Jiujiang, Jiangxi, JXjjx) to 6.52% (1482 genes in the population from Tongliang, Chongqing, CQtlx) genes was 2-fold higher than that of Col ecotype. Under cold treatment, the expression of 12.84% (2920 genes in the population from Chenggu, Shaanxi, SXcgx) to 19.46% (4426 genes in the population from Qinghe, Xinjiang, XJqhx) genes was up- or down-regulated by at least two-fold that of their controls. In general, most of up-regulated genes might be the genes essential for plant surviving at low temperature, such as genes in CBF pathway and the genes responsible for synthesizing molecules accumulated for cold tolerance. However, each natural population had some specific genes induced under cold treatment. The data indicated that some of the cold-responding genes were differentiated among the populations distributed in the natural habitats with different climate conditions. CBF3, one of the key tran-scription factor genes in cold responding pathway, showed significant differences in expression among populations. The sequence analysis indicated that the changes in its regulation region caused the dramatic difference in the expression pattern. Further studies on the correlation of the function of the differentially expressed genes and the cold tolerance in different populations may provide some new insight into the molecular mechanism of adaptation to local environment in Arabidopsis thaliana in China.
HE FeiKANG JiuQingZHOU XinSU ZhenQU LiJiaGU HongYa
