Abstract
Climate change drastically affects the cultivation of rice, and its production is affected significantly by water stress. Adaptation of a plant to water deficit conditions is orchestrated by efficient water uptake and a stringently regulated water loss. Transpiration remains the major means of water loss from plants and is mediated by microscopic pores called stomata. Stomatal aperture gating is facilitated by ion channels and aquaporins (AQPs) which regulate the turgidity of the guard cells. In a similar manner, efficient water uptake by the roots is regulated by the presence of AQPs in the plasma membrane of root cells. In this study, we compare the efficiency of transmembrane water permeability in guard cells and root protoplasts from drought-tolerant and sensitive varieties of Oryza sativa L. In this report, we studied the transmembrane osmotic water permeability (Pos) of guard cell and root protoplasts of drought-sensitive and tolerant cultivars. The guard cells isolated from the drought-sensitive lowland rice variety ADT-39 show significant low osmotic permeability than the drought-tolerant rice varieties of Anna (lowland) and Dodda Byra Nellu (DBN) (upland local land rice). There is no significant difference in relative gene expression patterns of PIPs (Plasma membrane Intrinsic Proteins “PIP1” and “PIP2” subfamilies) in guard cells isolated from ADT-39 and Anna. While the expression levels of AQP genes remain the same between ADT-39 and Anna, there is a drastic difference in their osmotic permeability in the guard cells in spite of a higher number of stomata in Anna and DBN, hinting at a more efficient gating mechanism of AQP in the stomata of the drought-tolerant varieties studied.
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KS and DM would like to acknowledge the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR-NICRA), Government of India for sponsoring a research grant that aided in the execution of this study.
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Fig. 1
Transpiration rate (Tr) and stomatal density. a Transpiration rate was measured on vegetative stage plants of ADT-39, Anna, and DBN before and after drought stress treatments with a portable infrared gas exchange system—Li-6400 according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The measurements were performed in three separate repeated experiments between 10 and 11 a.m. at contestant conditions (t = 26 °C, rh = 40 %, CO2 = 400 ppm). b Comparisons of stomatal density in ADT-39, Anna, and DBN (±SE N = 6) [asterisk indicates a significant difference in comparison with ADT-39 (>P = 0.05)]. c Selective rice genotypes of ADT-39, Anna, and DBN grown in potted soil conditions (PDF 83 kb)
Table 1
Primer sequences used for qRT-PCR-based quantification of AQP gene expression levels (PDF 40 kb)
Table 2
Special attributes of selective rice genotypes (PDF 219 kb)
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Vinnakota, R., Ramakrishnan, A.M., Samdani, A. et al. A comparison of aquaporin function in mediating stomatal aperture gating among drought-tolerant and sensitive varieties of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Protoplasma 253, 1593–1597 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-015-0916-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-015-0916-0