Drought tolerance studies on stay green mutants of rice

Leaf senescence is a highly regulated mechanism that provides the final line of nutrients to the plant. Delay in leaf senescence leads to the phenomenon of stay greenness. This trait could be of importance in crop improvement. Stay green mutants which have chlorophyll retention along with enhanced photosynthetic activity are called functional stay green mutants. We generated stay green mutants by EMS which were then subjected to drought studies to check whether these stay green mutants have functional properties and to check drought tolerance capacity.