Genetics and Genomics-based Investigations to Enhance Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Rice
Ashwani Pareek,
Professor,
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and heat are major constraints for global crop production in the current and more so in the future climate. Rice is a staple food crop for more then half of the world population. An estimated demand for rice would increase at least by 50 percent in the next 25 years to feed the growing population. Taking clues from naturally salinity tolerant rice genotypes, we are trying to understand the molecular basis of stress tolerance using an OMICS-based approach including transcriptomics, proteomics, ionomics and metabolomics. This work has lead to the identification and functional validation of key stress responsive genes, which may prove to be a suitable candidate for translational research. Taking an alternative approach of mutagenesis, we have generated several mutant lines through gamma-irradiation and screened them at seedling stage for different abiotic stress tolerance. Three screened mutant lines showed significant potential to survive under severe heat, drought and salinity stress at seedling stage. These mutant lines were further characterized for their mechanism of stress tolerance at reproductive and grain filling stage. Plants were grown in 15 L pots in the net house and phenotyping for heat, drought and salinity stress was done across the growth stages. Besides agronomic traits, key physiological traits such as photosynthesis, physiological water use efficiency, stomatal conductance, spikelet fertility, pollen germination, K+/Na+ ratio, spikelet fertility and source-sink regulation at grain filling were studied. These mutant lines could be used for improving rice production and varietal improvement for future climate.
|
|
