Oryza sativa cultivar:Indica cultivars, Naveen and AC41620A Transcriptome or Gene expression

Sowing of seeds under the surface of flooded soil is known as anaerobic seeding, which requires less labour, time and energy than transplanting. Anaerobic germination (AG) is a trait, which reduces the cost of cultivation, is environment friendly due to reduction in the use of herbicides compared with the other methods of direct sowing. Additional benefits associated with AG are improved drought tolerance and earlier harvests. Although flooding after direct seeding of rice helps suppress weeds, it also can adversely affects germination and growth of rice, resulting in poor crop establishment. Rice cultivars with ability to germinate under flooded soil surface could remove such constraints and rice cultivation would be more cost effective and environment friendly compared to the present method of cultivation either transplanting or direct seeding with heavy doses of herbicides. Comparative transcriptome analysis of rice cultivars such as 'Naveen', susceptible to AG and 'AC41620A', tolerant to AG can provide insights into alteration in metabolism specifically carbohydrate metabolism and hormone biosynthesis and the so-called regulatory mechanisms that allow rice to grow under anaerobic conditions. The transcriptome analyses can also lead to the identification of candidate genes involved in anaerobic germination tolerance. The data can serve as a resource in defining strategies to engineer anaerobic germination tolerance in rice.