ScienceAsia 27 (2001) : 093-097 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2001.27.093

The Solute Accumulation: The Mechanism for Drought Tolerance in RD23 Rice ( Oryza sativa L) Lines

Montakan Vajrabhaya, Warunya Kumpun and Supachitra Chadchawan^*

ABSTRACT: Four drought tolerant RD23 rice lines were selected from somaclonal variants arising in vitro. They had been selected under the drought condition for 5 generations before the progenies were used for the experiments. After five weeks in the nutrient solution containing 150 g/L PEG6000, the six-week old drought-tolerant seedlings had approximately 4-fold increase in total soluble sugar content, while the original drought sensitive line had only 2.5-fold, when compared with the non-stressed plants. Proline content was also determined in these rice lines. After five weeks of drought treatment, nine-to fifteen-fold increase in proline content was detected in the drought tolerant lines, while the original line had approximately five-fold increase in proline content. These data suggested that the ability to accumulate the solute contributes to better performance in drought-tolerance.

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Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.

* Corresponding author, E-mail: supachitra.c@chula.ac.th

Received 27 Apr 2000, Accepted 27 Feb 2001