Drought caused by global climate change is one of serious problems for rice cultivation. However, it was little reported the impact of drought on rice cultivation in Korea. In here, to assess impact of drought on rice varieties in Korean climate condition, growth characteristics and yield components of rice were compared on irrigated and partially irrigated rice paddy field. First, we have chosen 11 rice varieties including ‘Saeilmi’ and ‘Shindongjin’ which are widely cultivated in Korea. For partially irrigated rice paddy treatment, we have withheld irrigation from 25 days after transplanting and water supply was totally dependent on rainfall for rice cultivation. When we examined early plant height and tiller number of these varieties on partially irrigated rice paddy were reduced 1.6% to 18.4% and 10.4% to 33.1%, respectively, and these reduction rate were highly correlated with yield loss in our experimental conditions. Among rice yield components, panicle number was decreased 10.5% to 30.1% according to rice varieties and reduced panicle number was highly correlated with yield loss. Grain number per panicle, grain filling rate and 1,000 seeds weight did not have correlation with yield loss of rice varieties. These result means that growth stage, especially the tillering stage, is seriously affected by drought on rice cultivation in Korea. And we suggest that ‘Saeilmi’, ‘Ilmi’ and ‘Ilpum’ are good for rice cultivation on drought prone rice field in Korea.

Phosphorus is one of the macronutrients essential for plant growth and development, as well as crop productivity. Many soils around the world are deficient in phosphate (Pi) that plants can utilize. To cope with the stress of Pi starvation, plants have evolved many adaptive strategies, such as changes of root architecture and enhanced Pi acquisition form soil. To understand molecular mechanism underlying Pi starvation stress signaling, we characterized the activation-tagged mutant showing altered responses to Pi deficiency compared to wild type Arabidopsis and named hsp3 (hypersensitive to Pi starvation3). hsp3 mutant exhibits enhanced phosphate transporter activity, resulting in higher Pi content than wild type. However, in root architectural change under Pi starvation, hsp3 shows hyposensitive responses than wild type, such as longer primary root elongation, lower lateral root density. Histochemical analysis using hsp3 mutant expressing auxin-responsive DR5::GUS reporter gene, indicated that auxin allocation from primary to lateral roots under Pi starvation is aborted in hsp3 mutant. Molecular genetic analysis of hsp3 mutant revealed that the mutant phenotype is caused by the lesion in ENHANCED SILENCING PHENOTYPE4 (ESP4) gene whose function is proposed in mRNA 3’ end processing. Here, we propose that mRNA processing plays a crucial role in Pi homeostasis in Arabidopsis.