Rice Drought Panicle Transcriptome analysis

Mature seeds of Nagina 22 a drought tolerant and IR 64 a sensitive to reproductive stage droughtwere grown in pots in net-house under natural conditions during the Kharif season July to October 2021 at the experimental farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. Seedlings were raised in a nursery, followed by uprooting 25 days old seedlings and transplanting them into pots ,12 inch diameter filled with puddled soil. One set was grown as control (irrigated on alternate day with tap water). In contrast, the other set was imposed with drought stress at the reproductive stage (initiation of flowering) by withholding irrigation for 4 to 5 days just before panicle initiation (65 days after transplanting of N 22). The level of stress was assessed by measuring soil moisture content (reduced to 6 percent) and relative water content (dropped down to 58 percent) of the leaf. The panicle tissues collected from the rice cultivars grown under control and drought conditions, snap frozen in liquid nitrogen, were used for molecular (transcriptome) analysis.