ENHANCEMENT OF DROUGHT TOLERANCE IN RICE MEGA VARIETY (SWARNA) IN PRESENCE OF SUB1 AND DTY LOCUS

S. BHARATHKUMAR¹*, P.J. PRAGYA², K. JITENDRA³, M. MITADRU⁴, R.B. SAUMYA⁵, D. RAVINDRA⁶, P.P. BARADA⁷, M. SUDIPTI⁸, M. SHIBANI⁹, M. NIHARIKA¹⁰, J.N. REDDY^11
1Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
²Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
³Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁴Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁵Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁶Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁷Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁸Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
⁹Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
¹⁰Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
¹¹Crop Improvement Division, ICAR-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack, Odisha-753 006, India
* Corresponding Author : bharathkumar76@gmail.com

Received : 15-08-2015     Accepted : 27-10-2015     Published : 14-11-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 9       Pages : 662 - 664
Int J Agr Sci 7.9 (2015):662-664

Keywords : Drought stress, Quantitative trait locus (QTL), DTY2.1, DTY3.1, Swarna-Sub1 and gene expression
Academic Editor : A. N. Z. Alshehri, Prakash Ghimire, Md. Harun-ur-rashid
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : We sincerely thank the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi, INDIA for financial support and the Director, CRRI for providing facilities to carry out this study.

In this study, we evaluated a mega rice variety, Swarna-Sub1 improved for drought tolerance under submergence and drought stress condition. In submergence evaluation, rice lines having DTY2.1 and DTY3.1 locus showed intolerance response alone or in the presence of Sub1 locus. But, Swarna-Sub1 showed 100% survival rate in the absence of DTY QTLs to submergence stress. In drought evaluation, we found that rice lines with DTY loci showed enhanced drought tolerance in the presence of Sub1 locus like delayed leaf rolling and the highest rate of seed setting as compared to rice lines having only Sub1 or DTY locus. Furthermore, in gene expression analysis, expression of drought-inducible genes (DREB1A, SalT, LIP9, LEA3, Rab16A) was found strongly in rice lines having both Sub1 and DTY combination rather than single locus. In protein profile, we found rice lines having both Sub1 and DTY locus showed an increased amount of protein level as compared to lines having only DTY locus. The or These results support that thus improved Swarna-Sub1 variety for drought tolerance can be used in rain-fed lowland and upland areas where incidence of submergence and drought stress occurs subsequently.