Expression analysis of Some Stress-Related Genes Induced by Cadmium on Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Plants

Abstract

Environmental pollution occurs in nature as air, soil and water pollution and as a result it affects whole ecosystem including human beings. Although industrialization and technological developments have made life easier than before, in recent years, they have triggered environmental pollution. Cadmium, which is a toxic pollutant for all living things, is one of the most important element in heavy metal pollutants. In this study, it was aimed to determine gene expression changes in tomato plant under Cd stress. Molecular response of tomato plants to Cd stress was examined by transcript accumulation analysis of two stress-related genes: (i) MT-2 (metallothionine-2) gene encodes metal binding protein and (ii) The GR-1 (glutathione reductase-1) gene encodes the glutathione reductase enzyme and is a marker of the ROS scavenging mechanism. Expression differences in MT-2 and GR-1 genes in tomato seedlings exposed to cadmium stress at different concentrations ranging from 20 to 1280 mg L-1 for 24 hours were determined performing quantitative real-time PCR. The results obtained from this study were showed that MT-2 and GR-1 genes play an important role in the mechanism of protection against heavy metal of Cd stress. In addition, the physiological properties of tomato have been associated with cadmium accumulation.