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Agriculture | 'Villain' shrub may yield drought-resistant rice -Ekatha Ann John

'Villain' shrub may yield drought-resistant rice -Ekatha Ann John

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published Published on Feb 26, 2016   modified Modified on Feb 26, 2016
-The Times of India

Chennai: For long, they were dubbed as the villain among vegetation, sucking all the water from ground, spreading rapidly along the coast and degrading the environment. More than a century after Prosopis juliflora, a shrub, was introduced in Indian soil by the British, scientists are now trying to use its genes to engineer rice varieties that can withstand water scarcity.

After coming up with rice grains that are resistant to saline conditions by tapping genes of mangroves, researchers at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) have now identified genes in P juliflora that help the weed withstand extreme climatic conditions like salinity and drought. This, they say, can help develop transgenic rice grains that can cope with aridity.

A transgene is a gene or genetic material that has been transferred naturally or through genetic engineering techniques from one organism to another. Suja George, principal scientist at MSSRF, has been studying rice and P juliflora at the molecular level for close to 12 years now. In February, she and her team of researchers had a breakthrough of sorts when they identified specific genes in the shrub that react to stressful conditions. "We created an environment of aridity in the lab and isolated ribonucleic acid from the shrub's leaves and roots. The team then found which genes changed their expression under stress," said Suja.

Ribonucleic acid is a molecule implicated in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes. "Analysis of the physiological and molecular mechanism underlying stress tolerance is just the first phase of the research," said Suja. "Now comes the crucial part - characterising the genes and transferring them into rice crops," she said.

Abiotic stress - a term scientists use to refer to extreme environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, high temperature, high light intensity and nutrient imbalances -- is the principal cause of crop failure worldwide.

P juliflora is a survivor. The evergreen species, native to south and central America and the Caribbean, grows fast and is tolerant to arid conditionsand saline soil. Introduced in India during the 1870s by the British, and in Tamil Nadu in the 1970s to meet firewood shortage, the shrub turned out to be a bane. It spread fast and colonised the ecosystem, creating negative pressure on biodiversity. Scientists are focussing on the weed's trait to withstand extreme conditions.

The research team at MSSRF is also looking at other plants that exhibit similar stress tolerance like Avicennia marina, a halophytic (salt loving) plant and Chrysopogon zizanioides (vetiver), a perennial grass.
 
The Times of India, 25 February, 2016, please click here to access

The Times of India, 25 February, 2016, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Villain-shrub-may-yield-drought-resistant-rice/articleshow/51133136.cms


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