Identification of water stress genes in Pinus pinaster Ait. by controlled progressive stress and suppression-subtractive hybridization

► Climate change a major issue for trees, particularly drought in Mediterranean basin. ► Need of molecular tools for conifers; transfer from angiosperms often not feasible. ► Pinus pinaster as model species; controlled, increasing water stress. ► SSH library, selection by microarray expression pattern, confirmed by RT-PCR. ► 67 reliable candidate genes were obtained, useful for further studies in conifers.