Silencing of class I small heat shock proteins affects seed-related attributes and thermotolerance in rice seedlings.Silencing of CI-sHsps by RNAi negatively affected the seed germination process and heat stress response of rice seedlings.  Transgenic tobacco plants expressing OsHsp17.4 and OsHsp17.9A proteins and Arabidopsis plants ectopically expressing OsHsp17.4 protein showed improved thermotolerance to the respective trans-hosts during the post-stress recovery process.  Basal and acquired thermotolerance response of RNAiCI-sHsp seedlings of rice was mildly affected.  The seed germination process was delayed and seed thermotolerance of RNAiCI-sHsp was negatively affected than the non-transgenic seeds.  We, thus, implicate that sHsp genes are critical in seedling thermotolerance and seed physiology.
THERM