Global Expression Patterns of Three Festuca Species Exposed to Different Doses of Glyphosate Using the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome Array.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Comparative and Functional Genomics Volume 2009, Article ID 505701, 10 pages doi:10.1155/2009/505701 Research Article Global Expression Patterns of Three Festuca Species Exposed to Different Doses of Glyphosate Using the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome Array Ozge Cebeci and Hikmet Budak Biological Sciences Bioengineering Program, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University, Orhanli, Tuzla, Istanbul 34956, Turkey Correspondence should be addressed to Hikmet Budak, budak@ Received 15 May 2009; Accepted 4 November 2009 Recommended by Eivind Hovig Glyphosate has been shown to act as an inhibitor of an aromatic amino acid biosynthetic pathway, while other pathways that may be affected by glyphosate are not known. Cross species hybridizations can provide a tool for elucidating biological pathways conserved among organisms. Comparative genome analyses have indicated a high level of colinearity among grass species and Festuca, on which we focus here, and showed rearrangements common to the Pooideae family. Based on sequence conservation among grass species, we selected the Affymetrix GeneChip Wheat Genome Array as a tool for the analysis of expression profiles of three Festuca (fescue) species with distinctly different tolerances to varying levels of glyphosate. Differences in transcript expression were recorded upon foliar glyphosate application at 1.58 mM and 6.32 mM, representing 5% and 20%, respectively, of the recommended rate. Differences highlighted categories of general metabolic processes, such as photosynthesis, protein synthesis, stress responses, and a larger number of transcripts responded to 20% glyphosate application. Differential expression of genes encoding proteins involved in the shikimic acid path