Improving drought tolerance through gene manipulation has been of importance for modern agriculture, which requires identification and validation of candidate genes. Prospecting candidate genes from drought adapted crop species is of immense significance. To identify candidate stress responsive genes from adapted crop, we carried out expression analysis of a few drought responsive ESTs from Arachis hypogaea L. (peanut). The expression patterns of nine AhDR (Arachis hypogea drought responsive) clones were analysed under drought. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR analysis revealed stress responsive nature of the selected genes. The clones AhDR 118 (putative cyclin T-like), AhDR185 (aldehyde reductase-like), AhDR193 (cholin kinase-like) and AhDR 76 (proline amino peptidase-like) showed more than five fold increase in expression. Highly upregulated genes analysed for expression pattern against salinity at seedling level indicated that these genes provide cross protection. This paper is the first report indicating the association of peanut genes cyclin T, proline amino peptidase and choline kinase to drought tolerance, and the possible roles of these genes are discussed.
Keywords: Arachis; Drought genes; Gene expression.