Dataset Information

Antagonistic actions of HLH/bHLH proteins are involved in grain length and weight in rice.

ABSTRACT: Grain size is a major yield component in rice, and partly controlled by the sizes of the lemma and palea. Molecular mechanisms controlling the sizes of these organs largely remain unknown. In this study, we show that an antagonistic pair of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins is involved in determining rice grain length by controlling cell length in the lemma/palea. Overexpression of an atypical bHLH, named POSITIVE REGULATOR OF GRAIN LENGTH 1 (PGL1), in lemma/palea increased grain length and weight in transgenic rice. PGL1 is an atypical non-DNA-binding bHLH and assumed to function as an inhibitor of a typical DNA-binding bHLH through heterodimerization. We identified the interaction partner of PGL1 and named it ANTAGONIST OF PGL1 (APG). PGL1 and APG interacted in vivo and localized in the nucleus. As expected, silencing of APG produced the same phenotype as overexpression of PGL1, suggesting antagonistic roles for the two genes. Transcription of two known grain-length-related genes, GS3 and SRS3, was largely unaffected in the PGL1-overexpressing and APG-silenced plants. Observation of the inner epidermal cells of lemma revealed that are caused by increased cell length. PGL1-APG represents a new grain length and weight-controlling pathway in which APG is a negative regulator whose function is inhibited by PGL1.

SUBMITTER: Heang D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3283642 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Antagonistic actions of HLH/bHLH proteins are involved in grain length and weight in rice.

Heang Dany D Sassa Hidenori H

PloS one 20120221 2

Grain size is a major yield component in rice, and partly controlled by the sizes of the lemma and palea. Molecular mechanisms controlling the sizes of these organs largely remain unknown. In this study, we show that an antagonistic pair of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins is involved in determining rice grain length by controlling cell length in the lemma/palea. Overexpression of an atypical bHLH, named POSITIVE REGULATOR OF GRAIN LENGTH 1 (PGL1), in lemma/palea increased grain length and ...[more]

PMID: 22363621

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND: Cytoplasmic effects on agronomic traits--involving cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes of either different species or different cultivars--are well documented in wheat but have seldom been demonstrated in rice (Oryza sativa L.). To detect cytoplasmic effects, we introgressed the nuclear genomes of three indica cultivars--Guichao 2, Jiangchengkugu, and Dianrui 449--into the cytoplasms of six indica cultivars - Dijiaowujian, Shenglixian, Zhuzhan, Nantehao, Aizizhan, and Peta. These 18 nuclear substitution lines were evaluated during the winter season of 2005 in Sanya, Hainan, China, and during the summer season of 2006 in Kunming, Yunnan, China. The effects of 6 cytoplasm sources, 3 nucleus sources, 2 locations and their interactions were estimated for plant height, panicle length, panicle number per plant, spikelet number per panicle, grain weight, filled-grain ratio, and yield per plot. RESULTS: For five of the seven traits, analysis of variance showed that there were no significant cytoplasmic effects or interactions involving cytoplasmic effects. The effect of cytoplasm on 1000-grain weight was highly significant. Mean 1000-grain weight over the two locations in four of the six cytoplasms clustered close to the overall mean, whereas plants with Nantehao cytoplasm had a high, and those with Peta cytoplasm a low mean grain weight. There was a highly significant three-way interaction affecting filled-grain ratio. At Sanya, cytoplasms varied in very narrow ranges within nuclear backgrounds. Strong cytoplasmic effects were observed only at Kunming and in only two of the three nuclear backgrounds; in the Jianchenkugu nuclear background, there was no evidence of strong cytoplasmic effects at either location. In the Dianrui 449 and Guichao 2 nuclear background evaluated at Kunming, filled-grain ratios of the six cytoplasms showed striking rank shifts CONCLUSIONS: We detected cytoplasmic variation for two agronomically important traits in indica rice. The cytoplasm source had a significant effect on grain weight across the two experimental locations. There was also a significant cytoplasmic effect on filled-grain ratio, but only in two of three nuclear background and at one of the two locations. The results extend our previous findings with japonica rice, suggesting that the selection of appropriate cytoplasmic germplasm is broadly important in rice breeding, and that cytoplasmic effects on some traits, such as filled-grain ratio, cannot be generalized; effects should be evaluated in the nuclear backgrounds of interest and at multiple locations.

Project description:Grain length is a prominent determinant for the grain weight and appearance quality of rice. To elucidate the genetic basis of the control of grain length, we conducted quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping to determine a genomic interval responsible for the a long-grain phenotype observed in a japonica cultivar HD385 by using an F2:3 population and recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, which is are derived from a cross between the long-grain japonica cultivar HD385 and short-grain japonica cultivar Nipponbare (NIP). This led to the identification of a novel QTL, which is located on chromosome 3, for grain length, named qIGL1 (for Increased Grain Length 1); the HD385-derived allele showed enhancement effects on grain length, and such an allele as well as NIP-derived allele are were thus designated qigl1 HD385 and qIGL1NIP, respectively. Genetic analysis revealed that qigl1HD385 displayed semi-dominant effects on grain length. To further narrow down the qIGL1 region, we developed a few advanced backcross populations to determine the precise location of qIGL1. Eventually, qIGL1 was delimited to a 70.8-kb region containing 9 open reading frames (ORFs). A comprehensive analysis indicated that ORF6 and ORF9, separately corresponding to LOC_Os03g30530 and LOC_Os03g30550, are were found to carry base substitutions and/or deletions, which resulted in changes or losses of amino acid residues. However, these alterations in coding sequences does did not significantly change the expression levels of both ORFs. To further elucidate the mechanisms behind the increases of grain length conferred by qigl1HD385, we generated a pair of near-isogenic lines (NILs), termed NIL-qigl1HD385 and NIL-qIGL1NIP, and discovered that introduction of qigl1HD385 into the NIP background significantly lead resulted into the elevations of grain length and 1000-grain weight. Closer inspection of outer epidermal cells of grain surfaces of both lines revealed that the cell length and width in the longitudinal direction are were significantly longer in NIL-qigl1HD385 compared with in NIL-qIGL1NIP, which may might stem partly from the downregulation of several cell cycle-related genes. Hence, our study studies identify identified a new semi-dominant natural allele contributing to the increase of grain length, and further shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of grain length.

Dataset Information

Antagonistic actions of HLH/bHLH proteins are involved in grain length and weight in rice.

Publications

Antagonistic actions of HLH/bHLH proteins are involved in grain length and weight in rice.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets