The Transcriptome of Drought Response in Flax

Flax is an important multipurpose crop with well-known nutritional attributes for the seeds and also for the stem fiber. Drought and water limiting conditions are frequently encountered challenges associated with abiotic stress in flax crop. As drought stress is complex and involves diverse cellular and developmental programs along with physiological and biochemical responses, advancing the understanding of the associated adaptive processes will assist in identification of gene targets and development of molecular markers to improve drought tolerance traits in this crop. To address this, we have applied genomics centered approaches to identify genes involved in drought stress in flax using diverse genotypes representing both natural and cultivar genetic backgrounds. Drought response and recovery have been evaluated under controlled greenhouse conditions using developmental, physiological and transcriptome studies. These studies identified genotype specific response to tolerance or sensitivity. The transcriptome studies revealed differentially expressed genes that are associated with response to drought. Among these stomata associated functions are predominant. We also observed close correlation between the characteristics of “soil water potential and stomatal dynamics” with tolerance or sensitivity in different genotypes. The functional implications of the findings from this study to drought response and recovery will be discussed.