Abstract
Oryza rhizomatis is an endemic wild rice species in Sri Lanka with some unique characteristics of biotic and abiotic stress resistance. Hence characterization of desirable novel genes found in Oryza rhizomatis will be useful for transferring traits to commercial varieties. Therefore, in this study, a species-specific cDNA library was constructed from the wild rice species O. rhizomatis to isolate and characterize novel genes which are specifically present in this species but absent in cultivated rice (Oryza sativa). Forty recombinant clones were randomly selected from the cDNA SSH library and the inserts were sequenced. Sequence analysis of all forty clones indicated that the suppression and hybridization procedures in the library construction were successful as most of the clones have significant alignment with other wild rice species than O. sativa used as a reference cDNA for construction of subtraction library in this study. Therefore the genes which were specifically expressed in the wild rice species O. rhizomatis enriched in the SSH library. From this study it was possible to characterize O. rhizomatis nsLTP1 proteins (non specific Lipid Transfer Protein 1) super family AAI_LTSS which are found to be involved in control of pathogen attack related responses in plants.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(2): 133-140
Highlights
Wild members of Oryza have been shown to be important sources of genes for improving new rice varieties with resistance to biotic and abiotic stress through plant biotechnology
O. rhizomatis was selected as a “tester” plant and a popular cultivated variety was selected as a “reference” plant for construction of species-specific cDNA library (Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) library) to isolate and characterize novel genes, which are present in this wild rice species
O. rhizomatis is adapted to specific areas and highly resistant to drought, temperature, soil type and water quality and may have desirable genes to be used in varietal improvement programs
Summary
Wild members of Oryza have been shown to be important sources of genes for improving new rice varieties with resistance to biotic and abiotic stress through plant biotechnology. O. rhizomatis was selected as a “tester” plant and a popular cultivated variety was selected as a “reference” plant for construction of species-specific cDNA library (Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) library) to isolate and characterize novel genes, which are present in this wild rice species. In addition O. rhizomatis is growing high salinity areas (Puttalam) and adapted to survive in adverse environmental conditions (drought) of Sri Lanka because of its thick root system and underground branched rhizome. Bg352 was selected as a reference plant as it is a popular commercial (new improved) variety and cultivated in 23 districts in Sri Lanka. These two rice candidates were selected for this study
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
