Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, National Formosa University, Huwei, Yunlin, 632, Taiwan, China

Biograph
Li-Sen Young, PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA in the field of Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics. The research works of Professor Young is focused on plant endophytes and their mechanisms involving acquired abiotic stress tolerance and general growth promotion in crops.

Speech Title: Rice thermotolerance induced by bacterial endophytes

Abstract: A systematic identification of bacterial endophytes obtained from various tissues of different rice cultivars were completed and subjected to inoculation screens for acquired thermotolerance in rice. Results showed that 46 oC, 110 min treatment of rice seedlings was lethal to both TK8 and TN67 rice cultivars. On the other hand, seed inoculation of 32% (12/37) of bacterial endophyte strains tested could significantly enhance rice seedling thermotolerance. In addition, some bacterial endophyte strains could only enhance rice seedling thermotolerance in only TK8 or TN67 rice cultivars, suggesting a selective behavior and that they may provide rice thermotolerance through different mechanisms. We next confirmed the survivability of rice seedlings via cell viability stain using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC). The results revealed that viable cells in endophyte inoculated rice samples were significantly higher than un-inoculated controls. In order to understand rice gene expression pattern after endophyte inoculation, microarray analysis will be performed.

Keywords: Rice, Thermotolerance, Cell viability, Microarray.