Physiological Evaluation of Transgenic Rice Developed for Drought Tolerance

Evaluation of physiological performance of trehalose-producing transgenic rice line was conducted to investigate drought tolerance at early growth stage. Under artificially induced drought condition of 8% polyethylene glycol 6000, this transgenic rice line had leaf photosynthetic rate of 11.08 uml CO$_2$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$, leaf transpiration rate of 8.38 mmol $H_2O$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$ and leaf water potential of -1.12 MPa after 96 hours of treatment. Nakdongbyeo, the parent of this tyansgenic rice line, had photosynthetic rate of 15.42 $\mu$mol CO$_2$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$, leaf transpiration rate of 8,04 mmol $H_2O$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$ and leaf water potential of -0.88 MPa. The other variety used in this experiment for comparison, IR 72, showed higher values than both tyansgenic rice line and variety Nakdonbyeo on all three parameters; leaf photosynthetic rate of 20.61 $\mu$mol CO$_2$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$, leaf transpiration rate of 12.88 mmol $H_2O$ $m^{-2}s^{-1}$, and leaf water potential of -0.82 MPa. So this transgenic rice line did not show superior performance in leaf transpiration rate, leaf photosynthetic rate and leaf water potential compared to variety Nakdongbyeo. This result along with visual observation on leaf rolling and drying during the experimental period indicated poor physiological performance of this transgenic rice line. Further studies on metabolic status of stress-induced trehalose, along with study on physiological response of this transgenic rice line during drought stress would shed more light on overall physiological performance of this transgenic rice line.