Sajad Majeed Zargar¹ , Muslima Nazir² , Ganesh Kumar Agarwal³ , Randeep Rakwal^4,5

1. School of Biotechnology, SKUAST-J, Chatha, Jammu, J&K-180009, India
2. Department of Botany, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi-110062, India
3. Research Laboratory for Biotechnology and Biochemistry (RLABB), Kathmandu, Nepal
4. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba305-8572, Japan
5. Department of Anatomy I, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo 142-8555, Japan
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2011, Vol. 2, No. 14   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2011.02.0014
Received: 01 Jun., 2011    Accepted: 15 Jul., 2011    Published: 15 Aug., 2011

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Zargar et al., 2011, OMICS Based Strategies for Efficient Accumulation of Silicon in Rice to Enhance Its Tolerance against Environmental Stresses, Molecular Plant Breeding Vol.2 No.14 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2011.02.0014)

Silicon (Si) is a micronutrient. Its amount has been found to vary from plant to plant. Si in rice has been shown to provide tolerance against various biotic and abiotic stresses, especially rice blast and drought. Although rice contains higher amount of Si compared to other crops but the concentration varies between different species. In our own study we observed variation in the Si content among various genotypes of rice. A positive correlation between Si content in various plant parts of aerobically grown rice and the yield traits was observed, indicating the role of Si in giving tolerance against water stress. The genes responsible for Si accumulation in rice are known. However, the proteins induced due to Si application are to be mined. Here we propose a strategy based on genomics (molecular breeding) and proteomics approaches for effective utilization/incorporation of Si in commonly cultivated rice varieties to enhance its tolerance to various stresses.

Silicon; Rice; Drought; Biotic stress; Abiotic stress