Abstract
The identification of mechanisms of plant resistance and adaptation to adverse environmental factors opens broad prospects for the development of breeding biotechnology. The subject of the present study was Arum Korolkovii, a rare endemic species in Central Asia, included in the Red Book of Kazakhstan. In the present work a comparative analysis of expression of ICE1 and ICE2 genes involved in abiotic stress response in the studied plant under cold and frost conditions was carried out. Low temperature stress was induced by placing the plants in cold rooms and reducing the temperature to 0...+2°C for seven days (cold stress), followed by temperature reduction to -4...-6°C for five days (freezing). The relative level of gene expression was analysed by classical polymerase chain reaction. Under stress induction, increased expression of both studied genes, with different levels of expression already at the stage of acclimatization, was shown. The genes studied can be resistance markers for finding donors in gene collections