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Molecular Plant Breeding 2012, Vol.3, No.1, 1
-
10
http://mpb.sophiapublisher.com
1
Review and Perspective Open Access
Current Status of Genomic based Approaches to Enhance Drought Tolerance in
Rice (
Oryza sativa
L.), an Over View
Mueen Alam Khan
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur- 63100, Pakistan
Corresponding authors email: mueen_1981@yahoo.com
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2012, Vol.3, No.1 doi: 10.5376/mpb.2012.03.0001
Received: 20 Oct., 2011
Accepted: 02 Feb., 2012
Published: 08 Mar., 2012
This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Khan et al., 2012, Current Status of Genomic based Approaches to Enhance Drought Tolerance in Rice (
Oryza sativa
L.), an Over View, Molecular Plant
Breeding, Vol.3, No.1 1
-
10 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2012.03.0001)
Abstract
The availability of ample amount of water is the most limiting factor in rice production especially in drought prone
areas. The yield losses due to drought in rice are enormous. Due to quantitative nature of drought tolerance, conventional breeding
has met with little success. Recent progress made in the field of genomics enabling us to access genes linked with drought
tolerance has enhanced our understanding of this complex phenomenon. Identification of drought related QTLs, and their use in
marker assisted breeding, transgenic rice production and evolution of genomic tools provide rice breeders a hope to build high
yielding drought tolerant rice cultivars. The objective of this review is therefore to consolidate the current knowledge of
molecular breeding and functional genomics which may be influential in integrating breeding and genetic engineering approaches
for drought resistance in rice.
Keywords
Drought tolerance;
Oryza sativa
L.; QTLs; Transgenics
1 Importance of rice and severity of drought
Rice (
Oryza sativa
L.) is the second most important
cereal crop after wheat of the world utilized
exclusively as human staple food. More then 2 billion
people worldwide depend on rice for their survival
(Datta, 2004). The production of rice must increase in
coming years in order to keep pace with increasing
population. Rice is a warm season crop, and its
cultivation is concentrated in tropical and subtropical
climates. Drought is one of the serious abiotic threats
to the agriculture. This is due to uneven distribution of
rain fall and continued water shortages (Luo and
Zhang, 2001). Rice which requires enormous amount
of water is extremely sensitive to drought (Lafitte et
al., 2004). Very often the rained areas are subjected to
drought that can prevail at any growth stage thus
greatly reducing the crop yield (Babu et al., 2004).
The yield losses due to drought stress at various
growth stages of rice are summarized in table 1.
It can be inferred from the table that drought condition
can affect the plant at any growth stage; however
drought stress during reproductive stage directly
results in a loss of grain yields. Keeping in view the
increasing threats of water shortages and yield losses
due to drought, it is thus imperative for the rice
breeders to develop drought tolerant high yielding rice
cultivars.
Table 1 Yield reduction in rice due to drought
Growth stage
Yield reduction (%)
Reference
Reproductive
24~84
Venuprasad et al 2007
Grain filling
30~55
Basnayake et al., 2006
Grain filling (severe stress)
Up to 60
Basnayake et al., 2006
Reproductive (severe stress)
48~94
Lafitte et al., 2007