Abiotic Stress in Plants

We designed and tested experimental setup for reproducible salt stress conditions and evaluation of salt tolerance of diverse tomato varieties. These conditions produced reproducible physiological changes (such as transpiration rates and chlorophyll yield II) for both Ailsa Craig (AC) and Indigo Rose (IR) varieties.  Development of the experimental pipeline for salt stress treatments and analyses of transcriptional activity. A. Phenotypical changes under salt stress. B. Decrease in transpiration rates is a reliable indicator of the effects of high salinity stress on plant physiology. C and D. Absolute quantification of mRNA copies using RT/dd PCR. Salt treatment triggered a drastic increase in accumulation of both solSPL2 and solTFIIB2 TFs transcripts.