EFFECTS OF UV-B RADIATION ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF RICE CULTIVARS (ORYZA SATIVA L.).

Serious issues about the changes in the environmental conditions on earth associated with human activities have arisen, and the interest in these problems has increased. It is urgent to determine how the expansion of terrestrial UV-B radiation due to the stratospheric ozone depletion influences living matters. In this connection, we have been investigating the effects of UV-B radiation on the growth of rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.). We report here some physiological and genetic aspects of resistance to inhibitory effects of UV-B radiation on growth of rice cultivars as described below. Elevated UV radiation containing large amount of UV-B and a small amount of UV-C inhibited the development of plant height, the photosynthetic rate and the chlorophyll content in rice plants in a phytotron. Similar results were obtained in experiments, in which elevated UV-V radiation. Similar results were obtained in experiments, in which elevated UV-B radiation (transmission down to 290 nm) was applied instead of UV-B radiation containing a small amount of UV-C. The inhibitory effects of UV radiation was alleviated by the elevated CO2 atmospheric environment or by the exposure to the high irradiance visible radiation. The latter suggested the possibility that the resistance to the effects of UV radiation was either due to a lower sensitivity to UV radiation or to a greater ability to recover from the injury caused by UV radiation through the exposure to visible radiation. The examination of cultivar differences in the resistance to UV radiation-caused injuries among 198 rice cultivars belonging to 5 Asian rice ecotypes (aus, aman, boro, bulu and tjeleh) from the Bengal region and Indonesia and to Japanese lowland and upland rice groups showed the following: Various cultivars having different sensitivities to the effects of UV radiation were involved in the same ecotype and the same group, and that the Japanese lowland rice group and the boro ecotype were more resistant. Among Japanese lowland rice cultivars, Sasanishiki (one of the leading varieties in Japan) exhibited more resistance to UV rakiation, while Norin 1 showed less resistance, although these two cultivars are closely related. It was thus indicated that the resistance to the inhibitory effects of UV radiation of rice cultivars is not simply due to the difference in the geographical situation where rice cultuvars are cultivated. Form the genetic analysis of resistance to the inhibitory effects of UV radiation on growth of rice using F2 plants generated by reciprocally crossing Sasanishiki and Norin 1 and F3 lines generated by self-fertilizing F2 plants, it was evident that the resistance to the inhibitory of elebated UV radiation in these rice plants was controlled by recessive polygenes.