Department of Plant Physiology, Chandra Sekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, U.P.
*Present address: Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Agric. Sci. BHU Varanasi 221005.
** Corresponding author, E-mail: bandana_bose2000@yahoo.com
A lab experiment was carried out to asses the effect of PEG-6000 induced short term moisture stress on drought tolerance of ten rice genotypes, on the basis of change in some important physico – chemical parameters like proline content, RWC and NR activity in germinating seedlings. Proline contents of seedlings increased with increasing stress; at highest level of imposing stress, i.e. at −10.0 bars of water potential the percentage increment in respect to control represented an order like IET-11120 > CSAR13 > CSAR-77. Maximum relative water content (RWC) was found in the genotypes CSAR-13 > CSAR77 > IET-11120 at −10.0 bars of water potential and minimum percentage reduction of nitrate reductase activity in respect to their controls observed in the variety CSAR-77 and followed by IET-11120 > CSAR 27. Hence, the rest of the genotypes were found more sensitive towards increasing stress.
Nitrate reductase, PEG-6000, proline, rice, RWC
