Simulated attack of defoliating insects on upland rice cultivated in new agricultural frontier from amazon rainforest region (Brazil) and its effect on grain production / Ataque simulado de insetos desfolhadores em arroz de terras altas cutivado na nova fronteira agrícola da floresta amazônica (Brasil) e seu efeito sobre a produção de grãos

Simulation of the attack of defoliating insects provides a measurement of the level of damage that the crop can support at a given developmental stage and also allows to quantify the loss of productivity. This study evaluated the effects of increasing levels of artificial defoliation in upland rice plants under field conditions, on grain production at three phenological stages, vegetative stage V8 (collar formation in the 8th leaf of the main stem), vegetative stage V12 (formation of the flag leaf) and reproductive stage R3/R4 (liberation of the panicle or anthesis). The percentage of damage at all stages increased significantly from 25% defoliation, and was higher when defoliation occurred in V8 and V12. Defoliation levels up to 50% in the reproductive stage did not influence the quantity of filled grains, total spikelets per panicle and weight of filled grains per panicle, and thus the pest control is not required at this stage. The data show that the control of leaf-chewing insects in upland rice should be restricted to the vegetative stage.

A simulação do ataque de insetos desfolhadores fornece uma medida do nível de dano que uma cultura pode suportar em um determinado estágio de desenvolvimento e também permite quantificar a perda de produtividade. Assim, este estudo avaliou os efeitos de níveis crescentes de desfolha artificial em plantas de arroz de terras altas em condições de campo, na produção de grãos em três estádios fenológicos: na fase vegetativa V8 (formação do colar na 8ª folha da haste principal), estágio vegetativo V12 (formação da folha bandeira) e fase reprodutiva R3/R4 (liberação da panícula ou antese). A porcentagem de dano em todos os estágios aumentou significativamente a partir de 25% de desfolha, e foi maior quando ocorreu nos estágios V8 e V12. Níveis de desfolhas de até 50% no estádio reprodutivo não influenciaram a quantidade de grãos cheios, número total de espiguetas por panícula e peso de grãos cheios por panícula, e portanto, o controle de pragas desfolhadoras não é necessário nesta fase. Os dados mostram que o controle de insetos mastigadores de folhas no arroz de terras altas deve ser restrito à fase vegetativa.

Cloning and characterization of a water deficit stress responsive transcription factor gene from Oryza sativa L.

Understanding the biochemical and molecular basis of drought mechanism in rice is important as drought is one of the major causes affecting rice crop adversely. A 1017 bp gene sequence encoding AP2/ERF family TF was isolated from Oryza sativa sp. Indica cv N22 encoding a protein of 338 amino acid residues, with a molecular weight of 36.58 kDa, and no intron in the ORF. The gene was named as AP2/ERF-N22(2) different from the drought responsive gene AP2/ERF-N22 that we reported earlier. AP2/ERF-N22(2) has entirely different characteristics from that of AP2/ERF-N22. It has a single AP2 domain of 55 amino acid residues and a cluster of acidic amino acid residues at the C-terminal region, which could function as a trans-activation domain. Presence of NLS indicates that it is a nuclear localized transcription factor encoding gene. It falls in group VI L, sharing characteristic similarities. Arabidopsis members of group VI L have been shown to be involved in response to cytokinin under drought stress.