Differential display analysis of gene expression in plants

This review deals with the application of differential display to investigate gene expression in plants. A substantial articles reports the isolation and profiling of various genes expressed in cells using this technique. Genes involved in physiological events, stress responses, signal transduction and secondary metabolism have been isolated and characterized. Some of the isolated genes encode transcription factors, membrane proteins and rare enzymes that were previously difficult to purify. These results suggest that differential display is a powerful tool used to investigate the rare genes involved in the plant life cycle without using information from proteins.