Biotech Updates

Overexpression of OsRDCP1 Exhibit Drought Stress Tolerance in Rice

April 29, 2011

Five proteins were discovered in rice to have significant sequence identity with CaRma1H1, a drought-induced enzyme present in hot pepper. These proteins discovered by Hansol Bae and colleagues from Yonsei University were named as OsRDCPs (Oryza sativa RING domain-containing proteins). Among the five, OsRDCP1 was induced by drought stress and the others were constitutively expressed.

Transgenic rice plants overexpressing OsRDCP1 were developed and these exhibited improved tolerance to extreme water deficits, compared to wild type plants. The results may imply that the proteins could be involved in physiological processes that counteract dehydration stress in rice.

Read the abstract at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2011.02.008.