Project description:Plants capture solar energy and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, which is the primary component of crop yield, and needs to be increased considerably to meet the growing global demand for food. Environmental stresses, which are increasing with climate change, adversely affect photosynthetic carbon metabolism (PCM) and limit yield of cereals such as rice (Oryza sativa) that feeds half the world. To study the regulation of photosynthesis, we developed a rice gene regulatory network and identified a transcription factor HYR (HIGHER YIELD RICE) associated to PCM, which on expression in rice enhances photosynthesis under multiple environmental conditions, determining a morpho-physiological program leading to higher grain yield (GY) under normal, drought and high temperature stress conditions. We show HYR is a master regulator, directly activating photosynthesis genes, cascades of transcription factors and other downstream genes involved in PCM and yield stability under drought and high temperature environmental stress conditions. To assess the role of increased HYR expression in rice, whole-genome microarrays were used to generate gene expression profiles of rice cultivar Nipponbare transformed with an overexpression construct of the HYR gene (Loc_Os03g02650) under control of the CaMV 35S promoter, along with control wild-type (WT) lines.
Project description:Plants capture solar energy and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, which is the primary component of crop yield, and needs to be increased considerably to meet the growing global demand for food. Environmental stresses, which are increasing with climate change, adversely affect photosynthetic carbon metabolism (PCM) and limit yield of cereals such as rice (Oryza sativa) that feeds half the world. To study the regulation of photosynthesis, we developed a rice gene regulatory network and identified a transcription factor HYR (HIGHER YIELD RICE) associated to PCM, which on expression in rice enhances photosynthesis under multiple environmental conditions, determining a morpho-physiological program leading to higher grain yield (GY) under normal, drought and high temperature stress conditions. We show HYR is a master regulator, directly activating photosynthesis genes, cascades of transcription factors and other downstream genes involved in PCM and yield stability under drought and high temperature environmental stress conditions. To assess the role of increased HYR expression in rice, whole-genome microarrays were used to generate gene expression profiles of rice cultivar Nipponbare transformed with an overexpression construct of the HYR gene (Loc_Os03g02650) under control of the CaMV 35S promoter, along with control wild-type (WT) lines. Two biological replicate samples each from the HYR and WT-control lines were profiled using rice whole-genome microarrays.
Project description:Phosphate starvation/sufficient rice seedling, root or shoot Pi-starvation or Pi-sufficient stresses responsible rice genes, including previously unannotated genes were identified by Illumina mRNA-seq technology. 53 million reads from Pi-starvation or Pi-sufficient root or shoot tissues were uniquely mapped to the rice genome, and these included 40574 RAP3 transcripts in root and 39748 RAP3 transcripts in shoot. We compared our mRNA-seq expression data with that from Rice 44K oligomicroarray, and about 95.5% (root) and 95.4% (shoot) transcripts supported by the array were confirmed expression both by the array and by mRNA-seq, Moreover, 11888 (root) and 11098 (shoot) RAP genes which were not supported by array, were evidenced expression with mRNA-seq. Furthermore, we discovered 8590 (root) and 8193 (shoot) previously unannotated transcripts upon Pi-starvation and/or Pi-sufficient.
Project description:Chilling stress is a major abiotic stress that affects rice growth and development. Rice seedlings are quite sensitive to chilling stress and this harms global rice production. Comprehensive studies of the molecular mechanisms for response to low temperature are of fundamental importance to chilling tolerance improvement. The number of identified cold regulated genes (CORs) in rice is still very small. Circadian clock is an endogenous timer that enables plants to cope with forever changing surroundings including light–dark cycles imposed by the rotation of the planet. Previous studies have demonstrated that the circadian clock regulates stress tolerances in plants show circadian clock regulation of plant stress tolerances. However, little is known about coordination of the circadian clock in rice chilling tolerance. In this study, we investigated rice responses to chilling stress under conditions with natural light-dark cycles. We demonstrated that chilling stress occurring at nighttime significantly decreased chlorophyll content and photosynthesis efficiency in comparison with that occurring at daytime. Transcriptome analysis characterized novel CORs in indica rice, and suggested that circadian clock obviously interferes with cold effects on key genes in chlorophyll (Chl) biosynthesis pathway and photosynthesis-antenna proteins. Expression profiling revealed that chilling stress during different Zeitberger times (ZTs) at nighttime repressed the expression of those genes involved Chl biosynthesis and photosynthesis, whereas stress during ZTs at daytime increases their expression dramatically. Moreover, marker genes OsDREBs for chilling tolerance were regulated differentially by the chilling stress occurring at different ZTs. The phase and amplitude of oscillation curves of core clock component genes such as OsLHY and OsPRR1 are regulated by chilling stress, suggesting the role of chilling stress as an input signal to the rice circadian clock. Our work revealed impacts of circadian clock on chilling responses in rice, and proved that the effects on the fitness costs are varying with the time in a day when the chilling stress occurs.