Identification and mapping of a putative stress response regulator gene in barley

Plants respond to environmental stress with a number of physiological and developmental changes. Water deficit is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and development and crop productivity. One response of plants to water deficit is accumulation of abscisic acid (ABA). An increase of ABA is responsible for the induction of many genes, presumably some of which contribute to drought tolerance. Analysis of gene expression in barley seedling shoots by differential display reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (DDRT-PCR) led to the isolation of several drought-, cold- and ABA-induced partial cDNA fragments. Here we extensively characterize one of these cDNAs, designated DD6. First, a larger cDNA was extended from DD6 by 5'-RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends). Subsequently, the corresponding gene was isolated by screening a barley BAC library, and the sequences of the transcribed and flanking regions were determined. The deduced amino acid sequence has similarity to an Arabidopsis hypothetical protein and to a human and mouse DNA-binding protein. The corresponding gene, named Srg6 (stress-responsive gene), was mapped in a barley doubled haploid mapping population to chromosome 7H between markers ABC455 and salfp76, within a region that previously has been linked to osmotic adaptation in barley and other grass genomes.