Elucidating the role of express protein under drought stress in rice using RNA Seq approach

Rice is an economically important crop with high nutritional value, gets negatively affected by the varied environmental constrain. Therefore, in this study, we targeted express protein to functionally characterize its role in imparting abiotic stress tolerance particularly drought in rice using gain of function approach. Ectopic expression of express protein in rice resulted in the drought sensitive phenotype as compared to WT plants under arid condition. Comparative transcriptome analysis of wild type (Oryza sativa L. Nipponbare) and express protein over expressing seedling documented the remarkable decrease in the gene expression of stress and defense-related significant genes including Cyt P450, GST and peroxidases. Jasmonic acid and gibberellic acid stress regulation was also quite evident from both experimental evidence and transcriptomic data analysis. Overall, the present study put forward express protein, which is playing an essential role in regulation of drought stress.