Functional characterization of stress-responsive genes through the analysis of transgenic plants is a standard approach to comprehend their role in climate resilience and subsequently exploit them for sustainable crop improvement. In this study, we investigated the function of LOC_Os04g59420, a gene of DUF740 family (OsSRDP-Oryza sativaStress Responsive DUF740 Protein) from rice, which showed upregulation in response to abiotic stress in the available global expression data, but is yet to be functionally characterized. Transgenic plants of the rice OsSRDP gene, driven by a stress-inducible promoter AtRd29A, were developed in the background of cv. Pusa Sugandh 2 (PS2) and their transgene integration and copy number were confirmed by molecular analysis. The three independent homozygous transgenic plants (AtRd29A::OsSRDP rice transformants) showed better resilience to drought, salinity, and cold stresses, but not heat stress, as compared to the non-transformed PS2, which corresponded with their respective relative transcript abundance for OsSRDP. Transgenic plants maintained higher RWC, photosynthetic pigments, and proline accumulation under drought and salinity stresses. Furthermore, they exhibited less accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than PS2 under drought stress, as seen from the transcript abundance studies of the ROS genes. Under cold stress, OsSRDP transgenic lines illustrated minimal cell membrane injury compared to PS2. Additionally, the transgenic plants showed resistance to a virulent strain of rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae). The promoter analysis of the gene in N22 and PS2 revealed the presence of multiple abiotic and biotic stress-specific motif elements supporting our observation on multiple stress tolerance. Based on bioinformatics studies, we identified four potential candidate interaction partners for LOC_Os04g59420, of which two genes (LOC_Os05g09640 and LOC_Os06g50370) showed co-expression under biotic and drought stress along with OsSRDP. Altogether, our findings established that stress-inducible expression of OsSRDP can significantly enhance tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses and a biotic stress.
In bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), kernel parameters are significant grain quality characteristics that affect yield and milling quality as well as market price. Utilization of synthetic hexaploid donor to harness the diverse alleles for broadening the genetic base is a novel breeding strategy of the bread wheat breeding programs across the globe. An experiment was conducted during winter (rabi) season 2017–18 and 2018–19 at the research farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to evaluate 188 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) which were derived from HD 2932 (Indian bread wheat cultivar) and Synthetic 46 (Syn 46: Synthetic hexaploid donor) to identify the effect of the synthetic hexaploid donor on kernel parameters. Kernel parameters like kernel length (KL), kernel width (KW), kernel thickness (KT) and thousand kernel weight (TKW) were studied. Syn 46 had larger kernels and a high TKW with respect to HD 2932. Significant variation for all the traits was observed in the population with transgressive segregants. In this RILs population (188) KL ranged from 5.13–7.5 mm, KW ranged of 2.26–3.9 mm, KT ranged from 2.57–3.41 mm, and of TKW ranged from 25.2–53.17 g. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation of TKW with KL and KT. Potential RILs identified with desirable allelic combinations may be used for future breeding programs, and RILs with contrasting kernel parameters may be used to create nested RILs for further generation of variability.
Domain of Unknown Function 740 (DUF740) is a gene family that has not
been functionally elucidated in rice, until now. We investigated the
function of rice DUF740 gene family member, LOC_Os04g59420 (
OsSRDP-OryzasativaStress Responsive DUF740 Protein)
which showed upregulation in response to drought stress in the available
global expression data. Transgenic plants of OsSRDP gene, driven
by a stress-inducible promoter AtRd29A, were developed in the
background of a drought stress sensitive rice cv. Pusa Sugandh 2 (PS2)
and their transgene integration and copy number were confirmed by
molecular analysis. Homozygous transformants showed better resilience
than PS2 when subjected to drought, salinity and cold stresses but not
heat stress. Transgenic plants maintained higher RWC, photosynthetic
pigments and proline accumulation under drought and salinity stresses.
Further, they exhibited less accumulation of reactive oxygen species
(ROS) than PS2 under drought stress as seen from the transcript
abundance studies of the ROS genes. Under cold stress, OsSRDP
transgenic lines illustrated minimal cell membrane injury than PS2.
Additionally, the transgenic plants showed resistance to virulent strain
of rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Altogether, our findings
established that stress-inducible expression of OsSRDP can
significantly enhance tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses and a
biotic stress.
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