Cloning and characterization of drought responsive partial gene sequence(s) from Oryza sativa L. subsp. Indica

Differential display gels were run for the drought tolerant (N-22) and drought susceptible (Panidhan) genotypes of rice (Oryza sativa) to identify the genes showing differential expression with respect to moisture stress. Differential cDNA products were cloned in PCR-Trap vector and analyzed for differential expression by Northern hybridization. Two clones namely R4A and R7G were found to be associated with water deficit stress (WDS). Sequencing revealed an insert of 244 bp in the clone R4A. BLASTN and FASTA results showed that R4A had maximum homology with a full-length cDNA clone: 002-110-H10 and OSJNBa006109.12 protein. GO classification suggested that it had beta-glucosidase motif which had been implicated in ABA mobilization and thereby ABA dependent gene expression.