Study of the effect of drought stress and methanol spraying on dehydrin1 gene expression in Carthamus tinctorius L.

Drought is one of the most important environmental stresses for plants, which leads to a significant reduction in agricultural production. In drought stress conditions, plants exhibit a variety of responses at the physiology and sub-cellular levels such as increased expression of the gene like dehydrines. They are categorized in Group 2  LEA proteins (Late Embryogenesis Abundant proteins that synthesize and accumulate in different plant tissues not only in response to stress, but also as part of a pre-planned phenomenon during the final stages of development of the seed has been proven. Different types of dehydrine molecules have been identified in Arabidopsis, clover and other plants. Due to the dry and semi-arid climate of Iran and the high economic importance of safflower, in this study, drought stress was applied to this plant with use of methanol spraying in a completely randomized design. The expression of dehydrine 1 in the seed formation stage using the qRT-PCR method was evaluated and the means were compared using SPSS ver. 18. The results showed that the highest level of drought stress (50%) was associated with methanol spray 30%, the highest level of dehydrine gene expression was done.