Agrotechnology

Identification of high water use efficient rice genotypes using scanning electron microscope

2^nd International Conference on Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Hyderabad, India February 03-05, 2014

Roja Veeraghattapu, Kiranmayi S L, Santosh patil, Deborah D A K and Lakshminarayan R Vemireddy

Posters: Agrotechnol

Abstract:

Water use efficiency varies substantially among species and genotypes within a species. WUE could be improved by decreasing transpiration without a concomitant reduction in CO 2 uptake. 48 rice germplasm comprising drought tolerant lines, Nerica varieties, landraces, and modern cultivars were screened for high water use efficiency based on anatomical features like no of stomata, size of each stomata and distance between stomata were measured using scanning electron microscope model JOEL-JSM 5600. Genotypes under study were classified into three different groups as high water use efficient with lower number of stomata (2-4) with larger size (18-21 μm) and increased distance between the stomata (38-50 μm), medium water use efficient are with stomata no (4-6), size of the stomata (14-18 μm) and distance between stomata (35-38 μm) similarly low water use efficient are with more stomata (6-8) smaller in size (12-14 μm) and lesser the distance between stomata (less than 35 μm). Lower number of stomata with increase in the size of guard cells, increased pore size and increased distance between stomata were responsible for water use efficiency. The presence of abundant, closely spaced, smaller size stomata is responsible for higher evapotranspirational losses. There was positive correlation exhibited at 1% level of significance between size and the distance between the stomata on both leaf upper and lower surface.