Photosynthetic Pigments in Drought Stressed vs Non-stressed Oryza sativa

Undergraduate #25
Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Plant Research
Session: 3
Room: Marriott Balcony A

Tiffany Hopkins - Harris-Stowe State University

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n plants, abiotic stresses such as the cold freezing temperatures, extreme heat, salinity, desiccation, and drought produce cellular water deficit. This deficit leads to the accumulation of late embryogenesis abundant proteins (hydrophilic in nature). such proteins are associated with desiccation tolerance of organisms including prevention of protein aggregation. We dropped stress Oryza sativa plants in order to study the presence of various plant pigments including chlorophylls, xanthophylls, and carotenes. The rice plants used were not genetically modified for drought stress. Using chromatography we compared the plant pigments to the non-stressed Oryza sativa plants lacking LEA proteins. We also, compared the cell structure of stressed vs non-stressed rice plants using staining and microscopy. The non-stressed Oryza sativa plants showed the presence of all photosynthetic pigment along with more chloroplasts.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF

Faculty Advisor: Anbreen Bashir, bashira@hssu.edu

Role: I did all of the testing and research, and I completed the presentation of the work that I did.