COMPARATIVE TRANSCRIPTOME ANALYSIS OF TWO OLIVE CULTIVARS IN RESPONSE TO NACL STRESS

Olive (Olea europaea L.) constitutes a significant fruit-crop in the Mediterranean region with high economic value. The expansion of olive cultivation often results in the use of low quality, saline water in the irrigated land, which in turn results in reduction of growth and productivity. Despite the available ecophysiological studies on the effect of salinity on olive growth, the molecular basis of olive salt tolerance has not been extensively investigated. A salt stress experiment was set up with one-year-old plants of ‘Manaki’ and ‘Kalamon’ cultivars. An olive cDNA microarray, was used for comparative transcriptome analysis of NaCl-treated and untreated roots. Expression profiles were also used to construct networks of interacting relationships between transcription factors and regulatory transcripts.