Rice intermediate filament, OsIF, stabilizes photosynthetic machinery and yield under salinity and heat stress
Cytoskeleton plays a vital role in stress tolerance; however, involvement of intermediate flaments (IFs) in such a response remains elusive in crop plants. This study provides clear evidence about the unique involvement of IFs in cellular protection against abiotic stress in rice.
Transcript abundance of Oryza sativa intermediate flament (OsIF) encoding gene showed 2–10 fold up-regulation under diferent abiotic stress. Overexpression of OsIF in transgenic rice enhanced tolerance to salinity and heat stress, while its knock-down (KD) rendered plants more sensitive thereby indicating the role of IFs in promoting survival under stress.