Different Expression of Root Aquaporin Genes Between Dutch ‘Dundee' and Japanese ‘Reiyo' Tomato Seedlings, Poster Board #370

We have been investigating physiological characteristic of root in Dutch and Japanese tomato varieties, and we found that the root permeability of Japanese variety ‘Reiyo’ had significantly higher than that of Dutch variety ‘Dundee’. In order to research the genetic difference, we analyzed root aquaporin genes in both varieties. Compared to PIP (one group of aquaporin family, existing on cell membrane) expressions of two varieties, we obtained that ‘Reiyo’ had higher expression than ‘Dundee’ in PIP2:3 and 2:4. By contrast, in PIP1:2 and 2:5 ‘Dundee’ had higher expression than ‘Reiyo’. Additionally, we examined base sequences of cDNA because our primers used for aquaporin gene amplification were based on another tomato variety ‘Micro-Tom’ sequence data. The sequences of cDNA for the PIPs from ‘Dundee’ and ‘Reiyo’ were basically coincident with the ‘Micro-Tom’ data. Although we need to have more precise investigation of the function for PIP1:2, 2:3, 2:4, 2:5, and other PIP families, we found that aquaporin genes had different expressions at Dutch and Japanese tomato varieties.