Enhancement of submergence tolerance in transgenic rice overproducing pyruvate decarboxylase.

Summary Transgenic rice ( Oryza sativa L.) lines were produced through transformation with rice pdc1 gene coding for pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), one of the enzymes involved in alcohol fermentation. The over-expression of PDC was used not only to assess the role of alcohol fermentation but also to produce lines with enhanced metabolic capacity under anaerobiosis conferring submergence tolerance to these lines. Tillers of confirmed T 0 transgenic lines showed higher PDC activities and ethanol production compared to the untransformed control. Consequently, ethanol production of tillers of T 0 transgenic plants was positively correlated with survival after submergence. This is the first known report of transformation of an economically-important crop resulting in increased submergence tolerance.