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IS-MOBIL-Mobilitetsprogr.f.utl.Ph.D-stu

From Arabidopsis to rice: Increasing abiotic stress tolerance of crops

Awarded: NOK 0.12 mill.

Global climate change is more of a real phenomena then a hoax now and the effects are visible in terms of affecting the yield and agronomic properties of crop plants. The major reason cited behind this is unpredictable weather and frequent occurrence of a biotic stress conditions. So, the need of the hour is to have better and robust stress tolerant "climate proof" crop varieties. This can be done only if we could decipher the candidate genes and proteins responsible for abiotic stress tolerance. Recent li teratures have described that plant peroxisomes and abiotic stress tolerance are very much inter-related. Reumann lab at CORE (host institution at UiS) has well established peroxisome research in Arabidopsis model system and has identified many candidate peroxisomal proteins involved in stress tolerance. The idea of this collaborative initiative between the Reumann group at UiS and the visiting fellow Gopal K. Chowdhary (India) is to translate this Arabidopsis peroxisome research to economically important crop plant rice (Oryza sativa); a global staple food crop. We intend to identify the rice orthologs of stress inducible peroxisomal proteins using PTS prediction algorithm (developed by Reumann group), confirming their peroxisomal localization by YFP (ye llow fluorescent protein) fusion protein and then functionally validate them by over-expresser and knockout lines. The Reumann group has expertise of Arabidopsis peroxisome research, while the visiting researcher, Gopal K. Chowdhary has expertise in rice model system and molecular biology and biochemistry of abiotic stress tolerance in plants. The proposed project will develop significant collaboration between UiS, Norway and KIIT (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology) University, India to improve c rop varieties.

Funding scheme:

IS-MOBIL-Mobilitetsprogr.f.utl.Ph.D-stu