Preliminary Study on Function of Calcineurin B-Like Protein Gene OsCBL8 in Rice

The homozygous T3 transgenic lines with sense OsCBL8 gene and antisense OsCBL8 gene obtained by agro-transformation were used to investigate the function of OsCBL8 in rice. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR showed that the expression of OsCBL8 extremely increased in sense transgenic lines, and decreased to some extents in antisense transgenic lines. Such up- and down-regulation of the OsCBL8 gene in these transgenic lines had little effects on main agronomic traits, but significantly decreased the number of filled grains per panicle and seed setting rate in some of transgenic lines. By evaluation of the tolerance to 150 mmol/L NaCl, 20% PEG6000 and low temperature treatments, and relevant physiological indices, 8F12, a sense transgenic line with high salt tolerance, and 8R14, an antisense transgenic line with high drought tolerance, were obtained, which suggests that the OsCBL8 gene is involved in the response of rice to abiotic stresses.