Not AvailableAmong abiotic stresses, salt stress adversely affects growth and development in rice.
Contrasting salt tolerant (CSR27), and salt sensitive (MI48) rice varieties provided
information on an array of genes that may contribute for salt tolerance of rice. Earlier
studies on transcriptome and proteome profiling led to the identification of salt stressinduced
serine hydroxymethyltransferase-3 (SHMT3) gene. In the present study, the
SHMT3 gene was isolated from salt-tolerant (CSR27) rice. OsSHMT3 exhibited salinitystress
induced accentuated and differential expression levels in different tissues of rice.
OsSHMT3 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and assayed for enzymatic activity
and modeling protein structure. Further, Arabidopsis transgenic plants overexpressing
OsSHMT3 exhibited tolerance toward salt stress. Comparative analyses of OsSHMT3
vis a vis wild type by ionomic, transcriptomic, and metabolic profiling, protein expression
and analysis of various traits revealed a pivotal role of OsSHMT3 in conferring tolerance
toward salt stress. The gene can further be used in developing gene-based markers for
salt stress to be employed in marker assisted breeding programs.Not Availabl
