Akhilesh Yadav, Asha Lata Singh, Sanjeet Kumar and Major Singh
Accepted Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol
The persistence and growth of mesorhizobia in soils are negatively impacted by desiccation conditions. Studies were conducted to elucidate the nature of drought tolerance in the bacterium Mesorhizobium ciceri strain Ca181 and to correlate with symbiotic effectiveness. In this study, we used transcriptional analyses of trehalose-6-phosphate synthetase (TPS), glgX, NodC and major chaperone genes (groESL, dnaKJ) to obtain a comprehensive sympathetic of the response of Mesorhizobium ciceri strain Ca181 against drought. Polyethylene glycol used to generate drought stress and strain Ca181 tolerated YEB containing 45% PEG-6000 (PEG; wt/vol) for up to 5 days of incubation at 26?C. Desiccation of cells resulted in the differential expression of these genes, with considerable differentiation of 5 min, 15 min 30 min, 1 hr, 4 hr, 8 hr, 24 hr and 48 hr expressed genes. Upon drought conditions, Ca181 showed variable expression pattern of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthetase (TPS), glgX, NodC and major chaperone genes (groESL, dnaKJ) with relation to time interval. This is the first report on transcriptional analysis of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthetase (TPS), glgX, NodC and major chaperones genes in Mesorhizobium ciceri strain Ca181 under drought conditions, which may contribute to a better understanding the mechanisms of drought tolerance in mesorhizobia.