Abstract

Crops for Dry and Saline Lands: Forward and Reverse Genetics Approaches

Ashwani Pareek, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Among the various abiotic stresses which adversly affect the crop productivity, salinity is one of the most significantly contributing environmental factor. We are employing the OMICS platforms to dissect out the complex traits of salinity tolerance in rice. Since the first step in the stress response is the perception of stress stimulus, we have aimed to clone and characterize an ‘osmosensor’ or stress receptor gene from rice, which is a typical hybrid type histidine kinase. We have raised transgenic indica rice plants which are altered in expression (either overexpression or underexpression) for this gene with an objective to understand the role of this gene in salinity response. In an another approach, mutations were induced in salt-sensitive rice variety IR64 using mutagenic gamma radiations. Out of 1200 lines 23 putative salinity-tolerant mutants have been identified and farthered till M7. Screening of these lines at field level has clearly indicated that one of these lines shows significantly improved performance under saline conditions (EC = 14) as compared to the wild type germplasm. Further charactrization of this mutant line through markers and molecular tools is underway. The observations and detailed analysis pertaining to these mutants and transgenic plants will be presented.