Assessing drought stress tolerance and grain yield of <i>OsbZIP23</i> overexpression (OE) and down-regulated (RNAi) transgenic lines.

<p><b>(A)</b> Photographs of OE lines, RNAi lines and non-transgenic (NT) plants in the vegetative stage- before and after drought stress and their subsequent recovery after the drought treatment. <b>(B)</b> Survival rates of transgenic lines and NT plants, calculated in percentage (%). <b>(C)</b> Photographs of OE lines, RNAi lines and NT plants in early reproductive (panicle initiation) stage- before and after drought stress and their subsequent recovery after the drought treatment. <b>(D)</b> Survival rates of transgenic lines and NT plants, calculated in %. <b>(E)</b> Drought stress in PVC pipes in flowering stage and subsequent recovery till seed maturation stage of OE lines, RNAi lines and NT plants. <b>(F)</b> Mature panicle of OE lines, RNAi lines and NT plant. <b>(G)</b> Measurement of panicle weight in OE lines, RNAi lines and NT plant. <b>(H)</b> Spikelet fertility measurement in OE lines, RNAi lines and NT plants, calculated in %. Data bars represent the mean ±SD of triplicate measurement. Statistical analysis by Student’s t-test indicated significant differences (*P<0.05, ** P<0.01). All the results were based on three independent experiments.