Oryza sativa Transcriptome or Gene expression

A biological phenomenon in which hybrids exhibit superior phenotypes from its parental inbred lines known as heterosis, has been widely exploited in plant breeding and extensively used in crop improvement. Hybrid rice has immense potential to increase yield over other rice varieties and hence is crucial in meeting increasing demand of rice globally. Moreover, the molecular basis of heterosis is still not fully understood and hence it becomes imperative to unravel its genetic and molecular basis. In this context, RNA sequencing technology (RNA-Seq) was employed to sequence transcriptomes of two rice hybrids, Ajay and Rajalaxmi, their parental lines, CRMS31A (sterile line, based on WA-CMS) and CRMS32A (sterile line based on Kalinga-CMS) respectively along with the common restorer line of both hybrids, IR-42266-29-3R at two critical rice developmental stages viz., panicle initiation (PI) and grain filling (GF). Identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at PI and GF stages will further pave the way for understanding heterosis. In addition, such kind of study would help in better understanding of heterosis mechanism and genes up-regulated and down-regulated during the critical stages of rice development for higher yield.