The present study is to characterise the non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) status and its catabolism along with elongation growth in rice cultivars either possessing or not possessing the Sub 1 quantitative trait locus (QTL), i.e. Swarna and Swarna Sub1 exposed to seven days of complete submergence. During submergence, Swarna accelerated the rate of stem and leaf elongation and rapidly consumed NSC. In contrast, Swarna Sub1 consumed energy resources more slowly and maintained similar growth rate to that of non-submerged plants. Swarna Sub1 showed better utilisation of carbohydrate than that of Swarna by progressive induction of alcohol dehydrogenase, starch phosphorylase and total and α-amylase enzyme activity during submergence. Overall, submergence tolerance conferred by the Swarna Sub1 QTL is correlated with better maintenance and utilisation of NSC than that of Swarna.
I N T RO D U C T I O NFlooding is a major stress and constraint to rice production and about 20 million ha in rain-fed lowlands in south and south-east Asia are adversely affected by floods each year. Damage to plants caused by submergence could have several causes linked to floodwater conditions, particularly interference with normal gas exchange and light interception (Das et al., 2009). The adverse effects of flooding on rice vary by genotype, and of particular importance are the carbohydrate status of the plant before and after submergence, the developmental stage at which flooding occurs, the duration and depth and the level of turbidity and turbulence of floodwater (Das et al., 2005). Submergence tolerance in rice is an important trait and is physiologically complex but seems to be genetically simple (Xu and Mackill, 1996;Xu et al., 2006). The Indian cultivar FR13A is the most widely studied and used source of submergence tolerance in rice breeding, and a major quantitative trait locus (QTL)-designated Sub1 was identified that controls most of the submergence tolerance of this genotype (Xu and Mackill, 1996). Sub1 was subsequently fine-mapped and cloned, and three genes encoding putative ethylene responsive factors (ERF), Sub1A, Sub1B and Sub1C, were identified, with Sub1A recognised as the primary determinant of submergence tolerance . Moreover, precise gene-based markers were designed for Sub1 and used for its successful introgression into popular high-yielding rice varieties §Corresponding author.