Abstract

                                Iron (Fe) is one of the important minerals for all life forms, and its deficiency leads to serious health-related problems in humans. Rice, being a strategy II plant, uses the strategy I Fe-uptake system as well. Iron regulated transporters (IRT) primarily transport Fe from the soil to the plant. IRT2 gene expresses in roots, and its expression is up-regulated under Fe deficient condition. In the present srudy, the IRT2 gene isolated from barnyard millet, Echinochloa frumentacea Iron regulated Transporter 2 (EfIRT2), driven by a constitutive promoter was introduced into rice to improve grain Fe content in an elite rice variety, ASD16. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of ASD16 generated 95 events, and all of them were found to be transgenic based on PCR assays. Tissue localization studies using Scanning Electron Microscopy – Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX) analysis showed that the relative Fe content had increased in seed tissues. Fe estimation in unpolished transgenic rice using ICP-OES indicated a marginal increase of 15% in Fe content over wild-type ASD16.

Key words : Rice; IRT2; ICP-OES; SEM-EDAX; Iron; Biofortification