Abstract

Heavy metal is a serious abiotic factor that affects the growth and production of rice. In view of important properties such as anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer activities and anti-cancer activities of pigmented rice, two important local pigmented rice varieties - Chakhou (Manipur) and Kawnglawng (Mizoram) were selected for this study. This study was conducted during the month of March to October (2018 to 2020) at the Department of Botany, Mizoram University, Mizoram, India to investigate the effects of zinc stress on two pigmented and aromatic local rice cultivars Chakhou and Kawnglawng. The pigmented rice cultivars were analyzed for germination percentage, protein contents, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, antioxidant enzymes- catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and genome template stability (GTS) under different zinc stress conditions. Zinc stress affected chlorophyll and protein contents while CAT and APX activities were increased significantly. PCR-based Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was employed to investigate the genome stability of the rice cultivars against zinc stress. Genome template stability (GTS) was found to be high (>94%) in both the cultivars. Hence, these cultivars can be suggested as a source for future breeding programs against zinc stress.