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M. Somasekhar

Hyderabad , June 27

CORNELL University, US, has developed a gene construct, which inserted into a rice variety has the ability to tolerate drought, salinity and temperature.

Will this gene construct called Trehlose Gene Construct (TRC), demonstrate the same traits, if introduced into popular rice varieties in India to overcome these common problems?

Finding out answers are researchers at the Hyderabad-based, Directorate of Rice Research (DRR), who are in the process of getting the genetic material imported and put it in the commercially grown rice varieties, to later field test them.

Dr B.B. Mishra, Project Director of DRR, told Business Line that a scientist from the institute has undergone training at Cornell University. The gene construct was being imported through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Research (NBPGR), New Delhi.

The project has been approved b the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), DRR' parent and the necessary genetic approvals obtained from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), for import of TRC from the US, he said.

The advantages are enormous in Indian conditions if the experiments succeed, because about 8.5 million hectares of land is affected by salinity.

Coastal salinity, which is a big problem occurs in most coastal States with the intrusion of sea water. On the other hand, inland salinity, caused by drainage, is also on the rise, Dr Mishra said.

At present, about 20 rice varieties are grown in the coastal saline areas with varying degrees of salt tolerance. Some of these include CSR-10; CSR-13; CSR-23; CSR-27 and the best among them — CSR-30.

Under the DRR-Cornell collaborative project, funded by the DBT, rice scientists want to insert the TRC into some of the rice varieties and validate if the claims on tolerance to salt, drought and cold temperature are good enough under Indian conditions and, thereby increase the much needed productivity, Dr Mishra explained.

The DRR has created facilities for the monitoring, evaluation and testing of transgenic material in its campus. It has taken up projects in functional genomics of the rice plant as well.

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