Plant Grows at high Temperatures with help of Fungi/Virus

Let us talk about three new things I didn't know till now. Hope it will be informative or useful for your entrance exams.

1. Dichanthelium lanuginosum is grass plant known as Panic grass* and was able to survive intermittent high temperatures in geothermal soils (up to 65 °C.) of Yellowstone National Park, USA.

2. In 2007 it was found that the heat tolerance is conferred to the grass due to its association with an endophytic fungus, Curvularia protuberata.

3. "Thermal Tolerance" trait conferred by the endophytic fungus is actually due to a specific RNA virus onboard. This dsRNA virus is aptly named "Curvularia thermal tolerance virus" (CThTV). Infected fungal mycelia contain two viral dsRNA molecules: a 2.2 kb dsRNA molecule that encodes two ORFs related to viral replication and a 1.8 kb dsRNA molecule with two ORFs with no similarity to any protein of known function.

As we all know virus is pathogenic. CThTV is Symbiotic.

This is an example of a tritrophic interaction, as three organisms are interacting.

Work is continuing to determine the mechanism by which the uncharacterized ORFs within the 1.8 dsRNA of CThTV confer the thermal tolerance in this fungal-plant mutualism.

*Panic grass, incidentally, has nothing to do with botanical phobias; instead, the name derives from the Latin panicum, referring to foxtail millet.

Further Study

Ready to Eat Rice without cooking !

Yes. Scientists of Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), developed new rice variant named "Aghaono Bora", a soft rice or komal chawl, takes 45 minutes if soaked in normal water and if the water is lukewarm, it is ready in 15 minutes.

However, the soft rice varieties grown across Assam and the North-East, are ready to eat after they are soaked in plain water. it is a low-yielding crop that grows only in a cool climate.

The Scientists from CRRI, one of the premier research institutes on grains in the world, developed a hybrid of traditional soft rice with a high yielding variety of regular rice, that could be grown in different climates across India.

"We wanted to see whether the same rice can be grown here and retain the same properties. We saw it behaves the same way. Simply soak it in water and the rice is ready to eat but the quality of water has to be clean and potable. The idea is to avoid any waterborne disease," said Tapan Kumar Adhya, director, CRRI.

“This rice variety, which comes under soft rice category, helps in saving fuel as it doesn’t require any boiling ,” said Tapan Kumar Adhya.

In Orissa where 'pakhal' or cooked rice fermented in water is a hot favorite, the soft rice is expected to be a hit. It's environment-friendly and will save a huge amount of fuel and time.