Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Genetics

Cotton is one of the worldwide leading fiber crops. Egyptian cotton has a special importance due to its high quality fiber length and strength. More than 70% of the Egyptian region is under environmental stresses and/or based on rain-fed irrigation. Drought is one of the most important stresses that may affect cotton yield and quality in Egypt. There is no enough information available on drought- modulated gene(s), which can be a valuable gene pool for improving modern cotton cultivars. Therefore, the major objective of current study was to identify the responsive transcripts in two elite Egyptian cotton varieties (Giza88 and Giza90) under drought stress. To accomplish this, 17 % PEG600 drought stress was applied to seedlings of both cultivars under greenhouse conditions. RNA isolation, differential display (DD) PCR, silver staining gels, purification of DD fragments, and sequencing approaches were applied. A total of 13 out of 61 DD fragments were sequenced. Twelve out of the 13 DD fragments were found with a high homology to drought responsive gene families such as peroxidase, oxidoreductase, and kinases. Our study is adding to the global gene bank database of functional drought responsive transcripts in Egyptian cotton. Moreover, the 12 identified transcripts in our study can be used in multiple bioinformatics and transcriptomics cotton research

Issued also as CD