PAG-II Plant Genome II Conference

Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.


PG-II: DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSES OF INDICA AND JAPONICA RICE GENOTYPES TO TISSUE CULTURE FOR SALT-TOLERANCE

DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSES OF INDICA AND JAPONICA RICE GENOTYPES TO TISSUE CULTURE FOR SALT-TOLERANCE.

AB Mandal 1, AK Bandopadhyay 1, Ila Chaudhuri 2 and Rajat K. Chaudhuri 2. 1 Central Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair 744101, Andamans, India; 2 Molecular Biology Lab., Botany Department, Calcutta University, Calcutta-700019, India.


Three genetically divergent genotypes of rice (Oryza sativa) namely, Fuzisaka 3 (japonica rice), Pokkali (tall indica rice - salt tolerant) and B116 (improved indica rice-medium salt tolerant), were subjected to callusing on MS medium, followed by sodium chloride stress before plantlet regeneration. A total number of 118 salt-tolerant regenerates were planted and screened for salt tolerance in the humid tropical and saline condition, in huge plots in Port Blair, and identified as SC1 variants. More than 2000 plantlets were screened as second generation somaclonal (SC2) variants after growing them in huge plots. Regeneration data show that genotypically indica cultivars particularly native variety Pokkali are more prone to somaclonal variation than that observed in Fuzisaka 3. Occurrence of albino plantlets, which are common after salt-stress in tissue culture, was found to be less in indica cultivars. Also they showed significant reduction in plant height, days to flower and increase in grain length. Though few SC2 regenerated plants could not withstand saline condition (revertants ?), but some variants showed luxuriant plant growth. Also, sterility percent was found to be very high (63%) in Fuzisaka 3. Pokkali showed overall improvements in agronomic traits. Molecular basis for these variation is being subjected to experimentation with DNA probes available to RKC.


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