Abstract

Plants living in arid environments have to cope with a plethora of stressors and the development of cellular, molecular, biochemical, physiologicaland genetic strategies are fundamental to survive in them. Algarrobo (Prosopis chilensis)is a native tree belonging to Fabaceae family, which is naturally adapted to arid stressors (salinity among them), and therefore it represents a good model for understanding woody plants adaptation to arid environments. Our aim was to identify the genotype most tolerant to salinity along the natural distribution of P. chilensis in Chile and then, to sequence its transcriptome for identifying putative genes involved in salt tolerance. First, we evaluated salt tolerance of several Algarrobo accessions at germination and their physiological responses. Then, using SSR microsatellite markers, we evaluated whether accessions were similar or distinct molecularly, and then, we selected the most salt-tolerant accession to sequence its transcriptome by RNA-Seq. By this approach we were able to identify more than 30.000 transcripts significantly modified by salt stress. Results obtained in each process will be discussed. We found highly conserved genes in different species such as Theobroma cacao, Arabidopsis thaliana and of course Prosopis chilensis. This work is giving us important information about how P. chilensis and other plant species can tolerate salt stress.