Genetic improvement of Basmati rice for salt and drought tolerance by regulated expression of a barley Hva1 cDNA

Published Date
Plant Science
September 2002, Vol.163(3):525–532, doi:10.1016/S0168-9452(02)00155-3

• Author 

• Jai S Rohila ^a,1
• Rajinder K Jain ^b
• Ray Wu ^a,,

• aDepartment of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 316 Biotechnology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
• bDepartment of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana 125 001, India

Received 13 February 2002. Revised 24 May 2002. Accepted 25 May 2002. Available online 26 June 2002. 

Abstract

An HVA1 gene from barley was introduced and expressed under the control of a constitutive or a stress-inducible promoter in a recalcitrant scented rice variety, Pusa Basmati 1 to increase the tolerance against abiotic stresses. Third generation (R2) transgenic plants, each harboring a single copy of intact transgene expression cassette, were tested for stress tolerance. Homozygous transformants were exposed to high salinity or drought stress. These transgenic lines showed increased stress tolerance in terms of cell integrity and growth after the imposed salt- and water-stress treatments, compared to the control plants. The results showed that high levels of LEA3 accumulation in the leaves of transgenic Pusa Basmati 1 rice plants might have conferred the significant increase in tolerance against drought and salt stress.

Keywords

Actin1 promoter

Hva1

Stress-inducible promoter

Stress tolerance

Transgenic Basmati rice

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• * 
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Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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