Increased Expression of Phosphate Transporter Ospt2, Ospt6 and a Novel Gene Nrr Not Enhances the P-uptake and Acquisition in Rice (oryza Sativa L.) in P-stress Condition Arijit Mukherjee*, Rupsanatan Mandal, Roshan Ramesh Rao Yelne, Nirmal Mandal and Somnath Bhattacharyya

Phosphate (Pi) is a constituent of key molecules such as ATP, nucleic acids, and phospholipids, which play crucial roles in energy transfer, metabolic regulation, and protein activation. Plants have evolved a number of different adaptive strategies to maximize Pi acquisition under Pi-limiting conditions. Many high-afûnity Pi transporter genes are expressed predominantly in roots and are induced by Pi depletion which indicate that they are involved in P-uptake and acquisition through the roots in P-strress condition (Seo et al., 2008, Jia et al., 2011, Sun et al., 2012). Higher the root/shoot ratio, root hair proliferation and increased in length, and lateral root number, increase the surface area for absorption, thereby increasing Puptake efûciency and acquisition under Pi-limiting conditions (Poirier and Bucher 2002).