INDIAN SCIENTISTS DEVELOPING SALT-TOLERANT RICE...

A group of Indian scientists has developed a new salt-tolerant transgenic rice plant by over-expressing a gene from a wild rice called Porteresia coarctata into the commonly used IR 64 indica rice variety. Porteresia coarctata is a native of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar and is grown mainly in saline estuaries.

In a report published in journal Scientific Reports, scientists led by Prof Arun Lahiri Majumder of the Kolkata-based Bose Institute, said the new crop could withstand salt concentration of up to 200 micromole per litre or about half as saline as sea water without affecting normal growth and grain yield under greenhouse conditions .

The study has also indicated that inositol, a vitamin like substance found in all plants and animals including human being, acts as a stress-ameliorator and as a switch for a number of other pathways important for imparting salt-tolerance.

Source: Agronews