Author(s)

Alice Casassola, Sandra Patussi Brammer, Márcia Soares Chaves, José Antônio Martinelli, Magali Ferrari Grando, Norimar D’Ávila Denardin

Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Passo Fundo, Brazil.
Universidade de Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil.
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The plant genes involved in cellular signaling and metabolism have not been fully identified, while the function(s) of many of those which have are as yet incompletely characterized. Gene expression analysis allows the identification of genes and the study of their relationship with cellular processes. There are several options available for studying gene expression, including the use of cDNA and microarray libraries and techniques such as suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH), differential display (DD), RNA fingerprinting by arbitrary primed PCR (RAP), expressed sequence tags (EST), serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), representational difference analysis (RDA), cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). Focusing on defense-related processes in plants, we present a brief review and examples of each of these methodologies and their advantages and limitations regarding the study of plant gene expression.

Transcriptomics; cDNA; Metabolic Routes; Plant Defense; Gene Expression; Molecular Biology

A. Casassola, S. Brammer, M. Soares Chaves, J. Martinelli, M. Grando and N. Denardin, "Gene Expression: A Review on Methods for the Study of Defense-Related Gene Differential Expression in Plants," American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 4 No. 12C, 2013, pp. 64-73. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2013.412A3008.