Present investigation was carried out with an objective to study the in vitro genotypic response
of three aromatic rice cultivars, viz. Pusa Basmati 1, Pant Sugandh Dhan 17, Taraori Basmati and one non
aromatic Narendra 359 to water deficit stress using mature embryos as explants. The effect of water deficit
was induced by sub-culturing calli on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with different
concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-6000. Total protein content was found to be increased with
increasing concentration of PEG-6000 in the medium. SDS-PAGE of somaclones showed over expression of
polypeptides ranged from 29 - 205 kDa under higher stress levels, which in turn suggested that many
proteins are specifically altered de novo under water stress as a part of the adaptive mechanism. Rice
cultivar, Narendra 359 showed best response in terms of chlorophyll and higher total protein content along
with activation of few specific polypeptides under water stress and thus, proved to be drought tolerant. The
protein profiling was complemented by analyzing the genetic diversity of these varieties with random
amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). RAPD profiles from the micro propagated plants showed polymorphism
with similarity ranging from 0.46 to 0.76.