Cracking the Core Physiological and Molecular Traits of Drought-Tolerant Rice

0
306
Rice Adaptation to Field Drought

Revealed: The Secrets our Clients Used to Earn $3 Billion

The scientists performing their field experiment. Credit:Dr Amelia Henry, International Rice Research Institute, Los Ba ños, Laguna, Philippines

Study links gene expression patterns to qualities that enhance dry spell tolerance in rice plants.

For lots of smallholder farmers in South and Southeast Asia, rice is more than an essential food– it’s an income. Generations of smallholder farmers have actually relied exclusively on rains to water their crops, however the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts triggered by environment modification are putting rice production under severe pressure. Some standard rice ranges grown in these areas have actually adjusted to dry conditions, and might hold the secret to establishing techniques to improve rice production under dry spell: “If we can identify the genes involved in drought resistance of traditional rice varieties, we can use this knowledge for breeding new, more stable-yielding, drought-resistant rice varieties,” statesDr Simon “Niels” Groen, very first author of an interesting brand-new research study released in The Plant Cell

In a field experiment performed in the Philippines, covering 2 years and including countless rice plants,Dr Groen and his coworkers set out to do simply that. Using a panel of 20 various rice ranges, a few of which were understood to stand well to dry spell, the group checked out how dry conditions impact gene expression patterns in rice, how drought-stressed rice plants coordinate gene expression in between their roots and shoots, and how these gene expression patterns are connected to qualities that make plants more resistant in dry conditions.

To acquire root product for their research study, the group needed to break open rock-hard soil utilizing pickaxes and hammers. AsDr Groen puts it, “It was like searching for gold!” Their efforts settled. The group determined a series of qualities connected to rice plant physical fitness under dry spell, such as increased crown root density. Drought had a higher impact on gene expression patterns in the roots than in the shoots, however the group determined modules of co-expressed genes connected to dry spell tolerance in both the roots and the shoots. Many of these modules consisted of genes that had actually formerly been connected to enhanced dry spell tolerance, such as those associated with root-to-shoot water transportation and photosynthesis, and one module included genes understood to be associated with interactions with soil-dwelling arbuscular mycorrhizal fungis. Interactions in between the roots and advantageous soil organisms may boost dry spell tolerance by enhancing access to nutrients and the authors aspire to explore this possibility even more.

The group hopes that the gene modules determined in their research study will direct efforts to reproduce resistant rice ranges, alleviating a few of the pressures of a hotter, drier world: “We could see with our own eyes how drought can affect rice production and, most importantly, the lives of smallholder farmers in the area. This brought into perspective why we are doing the research that we are doing.”

Reference: “Evolutionary systems biology reveals patterns of rice adaptation to drought-prone agro-ecosystems Get access Arrow” by Simon C Groen, Zo é Joly-Lopez, Adrian E Platts, Mignon Natividad, Zo ë Fresquez, William M Mauck, III, Marinell R Quintana, Carlo Leo U Cabral, Rolando O Torres, Rahul Satija, Michael D Purugganan and Amelia Henry, 15 November 2021, The Plant Cell
DOI: 10.1093/ plcell/koab275

Funding: National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program, NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute, University of California at Riverside