Specific peroxidases differentiateBrachypodium distachyonaccessions and are associated with drought tolerance traits

Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) is a model system for studying cereal, bioenergy, forage and turf grasses. The genetic and evolutionary basis of the adaptation of this wild grass species to drought stress is largely unknown. Peroxidase (POD) may play a role in plant drought tolerance, but whether the allelic variations of genes encoding the specific POD isoenzymes are associated with plant response to drought stress is not well understood. The objectives of this study were to examine natural variation of POD isoenzyme patterns, to identify nucleotide diversity of POD genes and to relate the allelic variation of genes to drought tolerance traits of diverse Brachypodium accessions.