Development of salinity tolerance in rice by constitutive-overexpression of genes involved in the regulation of programmed cell death.

ABSTRACT: Environmental factors contribute to over 70% of crop yield losses worldwide. Of these drought and salinity are the most significant causes of crop yield reduction. Rice is an important staple crop that feeds more than half of the world's population. However among the agronomically important cereals rice is the most sensitive to salinity. In the present study we show that exogenous expression of anti-apoptotic genes from diverse origins, AtBAG4 (Arabidopsis), Hsp70 (Citrus tristeza virus) and p35 (Baculovirus), significantly improves salinity tolerance in rice at the whole plant level. Physiological, biochemical and agronomical analyses of transgenic rice expressing each of the anti-apoptotic genes subjected to salinity treatment demonstrated traits associated with tolerant varieties includ

SUBMITTER: Hoang TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4378369 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature