Transgenic salt tolerant Rice produced by Dr. Zeba Islam Seraj and her team at Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, University of Dhaka.
These rice have been produced by inserting regulatory genes into the rice. For example 1. The helicase gene, which allows transcription of RNA to proceed under salt stress. 2. The sodium hydrogen antiporter which isolates the excess sodium under salt stress into the vacuoles, away from metabolism that can be harmed by salt. And 3 downregulation of the DST transcription factor, which can put a brake on metabolism under salt stress. Therefore, downregulating DST, enhances salt tolerance and increase yields.
These Rice can grow at greater than 100mM of salt or in 1/4th seawater. These rice will be subjected to biosafety procedures before screen house and field testing.
1. Biswas S, Islam MN, Sarker S, Tuteja N, Seraj ZI (2019). Overexpression of heterotrimeric G protein beta subunit gene (OsRGB1) confers both heat and salinity stress tolerance in rice. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 144: 334-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.10.005
2. Seraj Z.I., Elias S.M., Biswas S., Tuteja N. (2018) Helicases and Their Importance in Abiotic Stresses. In: Kumar V., Wani S., Suprasanna P., Tran LS. (eds) Salinity Responses and Tolerance in Plants, Volume 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90318-7_6
3. T Ahmed, S Biswas, SM Elias, MS Rahman, N Tuteja, ZI Seraj (2018). In Planta transformation for conferring salt tolerance to a tissue-culture unresponsive indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Plant, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-017-9870-1.
4. Biswas S, Amin USM, Sarker S, Rahman MS, Amin R, Karim R, Tuteja N, Seraj ZI (2018). 'Introgression, Generational Expression and Salinity Tolerance Conferred by the Pea DNA Helicase 45 Transgene into Two Commercial Rice Genotypes, BR28 and BR47. Mol Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-017-0055-2
5. Faisal, A. R. M., Biswas, S., Zerin, T., Rahman, T., & Seraj, Z. I. (2017). Downregulation of the DST Transcription Factor Using Artificial microRNA to Increase Yield, Salt and Drought Tolerance in Rice. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 8(09), 2219-2237. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2017.89149
6. USM Amin, S Biswas, SM Elias, S Razzaque, T Haque, R Malo, ZI Seraj (2016). Enhanced Salt Tolerance Conferred by the Complete 2.3 kb cDNA of the Rice Vacuolar Na+/H+ Antiporter Gene Compared to 1.9 kb Coding Region with 5′ UTR in Transgenic Lines of Rice. Frontiers in Plant Science 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00014
7. S Sarker, S Biswas, MA Shahed, A Razzaque, ZI Seraj (2016). Cloning, characterization and analysis of the Arabidopsis RD29A promoter for its inducible expression in rice under salinity and drought stress. Biores comm 2 (1), 139-145. http://bioresearchcommunications.com/index.php/brc/article/view/61
8. S Parvin, S Biswas, S Razzaque, T Haque, SM Elias, RS Tammi and ZI Seraj (2015). Salinity and drought tolerance conferred by in planta transformation of SNAC1 transcription factor into a high-yielding rice variety of Bangladesh
Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 37:68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-015-1817-8
9. S Biswas, S Razzaque, SM Elias, USM Amin, T Haque, SMT Islam, Lisa LA, Naznin F, Rasul NM and Seraj ZI (2015). Effect of the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter transgene in a rice landrace and a commercial rice cultivar after its insertion by crossing. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 37: 1730. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1730-6