Stress induced polypeptides in lathyrus sativus

Effect of stress during seed germination showed both qualitative and quantitative changes in respect to polypeptide pattern. In general, the number of polypeptides decreased with induced stress. Polypeptides of 46, 40, 35 and 28 kD were present even at sublethal dehydration state of the plant thereby indicating the possibility of their role in overcoming severe stress. This has also been confirmed by RNA dot-blot analysis using drought responsive DNA probe which showed an abundance of stress inducible transcripts on salinity, mannitol and ABA treatments. Salinity induced greater reduction in the expression of high molecular weight polypeptides than other stress treatments. ABA along with mannitel/salt induced higher synthesis of a 46 kD polypeptide.