Identification of ozone stress in Indian rice through foliar injury and differential protein profile

The present study showed a possibility to use phenotypic and proteomic responses in rice plants as an in vivo biomarker to detect higher concentrations of ambient ozone (O-3). The investigation was done on two cultivars of Indian rice using open top chambers ventilated with charcoal filtered air, ambient air, ambient air with 10 ppb O-3 exposure and ambient air with 20 ppb O-3 exposure at a rural site of Varanasi, India. Results showed that the magnitude of O-3 induced specific type of foliar injury directly depends on the duration and concentration of O-3 exposure. Even the internal protein profile of injured and normal leaf demonstrated a differential expression, which directly indicates towards the molecular basis of plant's response against O-3.