Abstract
Low light intensity is a great limitation for grain yield and quality in rice. However, yield is not significantly reduced in low light tolerant rice varieties. The work therefore planned for comparative transcriptome profiling under low light stress to decipher the genes involved and molecular mechanism of low light tolerance in rice. At active tillering stage, 50% low light exposure for 1 day, 3 days and 5 days were given to Swarnaprabha (low light tolerant) and IR8 (low light sensitive) rice varieties. Illumina (HiSeq) platform was used for transcriptome sequencing. A total of 6,652 and 12,042 genes were differentially expressed due to low light intensity in Swarnaprabha and IR8, respectively as compared to control. CAB, LRP, SBPase, MT15, TF PCL1 and Photosystem I & II complex related gene expressions were mostly increased in Swarnaprabha upon longer duration of low light exposure which was not found in IR8 as compared to control. Their expressions were validated by qRT-PCR. Overall study suggested that the maintenance of grain yield in the tolerant variety under low light might be results of accelerated expression of the genes which enable the plant to keep the photosynthetic processes moving at the same pace even under low light.
Highlights
Low light intensity is a great limitation for grain yield and quality in rice
In our experiment we have found that the chlorophyll a content was significantly increased in both the varieties under low light condition whereas chlorophyll b content was significantly increased in Swarnaprabha the chlorophyll a/b ratio was significantly decreased in Swarnaprabha
Similar to chlorophyll a-b binding protein (CAB) proteins, up-regulation of PSIIPSB27-H1 in Swarnaprabha and its down-regulation in IR8 with respect to control gives a clue for its important role in adaptation to low light stress in rice, any role of PSIIPSB27-H1 in low light stress protection has not been reported till date
Summary
Low light intensity is a great limitation for grain yield and quality in rice. yield is not significantly reduced in low light tolerant rice varieties. We have used comparative transcriptomic approach to decipher the genes associated with low-light tolerance in rice considering that physiological functions are largely reflection of changes at the transcript level. In this process, transcriptome of two rice varieties, Swarnaprabha, a low light tolerant and IR8, a low light sensitive[16] were compared after exposing them to 50% less light intensity for various duration at active tillering stage with respect to their control, i.e. the plants receiving normal light intensity. This is the first report on molecular mechanism of low light intensity tolerance in rice
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