Project description:In the current study, we characterized an miRNA, OsmiR397, which was found to be associated with increased grain size, more rice panicle branching and higher grain productivity. We also elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which OsmiR397 increased grain yield. This miRNA downregulated the expression of its target gene, OsLAC, which then affected the sensitivity of plants to brassinosteroids. These results should be useful for breeding high-yield crops through genetic engineering. We performed RNA-seq on the young panicles of the wild-type, OXmiR397b and OXLAC plants and found that lots of brassinosteroid-related genes were differentially expressed between the three samples
Project description:Transgenic rice plants expressing the Arabidopsis phloem-specific sucrose transporter AtSUC2, which loads Suc into the phloem, showed an increase in grain yield of up to 16% relative to wild-type plants in field trials. The goal was to reveal how expressed AtSUC2 in rice leads to increased grain yield analyzing global gene expression.
Project description:A biological phenomenon in which hybrids exhibit superior phenotypes from its parental inbred lines known as heterosis, has been widely exploited in plant breeding and extensively used in crop improvement. Hybrid rice has immense potential to increase yield over other rice varieties and hence is crucial in meeting increasing demand of rice globally. Moreover, the molecular basis of heterosis is still not fully understood and hence it becomes imperative to unravel its genetic and molecular basis. In this context, RNA sequencing technology (RNA-Seq) was employed to sequence transcriptomes of two rice hybrids, Ajay and Rajalaxmi, their parental lines, CRMS31A (sterile line, based on WA-CMS) and CRMS32A (sterile line based on Kalinga-CMS) respectively along with the common restorer line of both hybrids, IR-42266-29-3R at two critical rice developmental stages viz., panicle initiation (PI) and grain filling (GF). Identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at PI and GF stages will further pave the way for understanding heterosis. In addition, such kind of study would help in better understanding of heterosis mechanism and genes up-regulated and down-regulated during the critical stages of rice development for higher yield.
Project description:Plant height and grain size are important agronomic traits affecting rice yield. Various plant hormones participate in the regulation of plant height and grain size in rice. However, how these hormones cooperate to regulate plant height and grain size is poorly understood. In this study, we identified a brassinosteroid-related gene, hfr131, from an introgression line constructed using Oryza longistaminata, that caused brassinosteroid insensitivity and reduced plant height and grain length in rice. Further study showed that hfr131 is a new allele of OsBRI1 with a single-nucleotide polymorphism (G to A) in the coding region, leading to a T988I conversion at a conserved site of the kinase domain. An auxin response factor, OsARF17, could bind to the promoter region of HFR131 and positively regulated HFR131 expression, thereby regulating the plant height and grain length, and influencing brassinosteroid sensitivity. Haplotype analysis showed that the consociation of OsAFR17Hap1/HFR131Hap6 conferred an increase in grain length. Overall, this study identified hfr131 as a new allele of OsBRI1 that regulates plant height and grain length in rice, revealed that brassinosteroid and auxin might coordinate through OsARF17–HFR131 interaction, and provided a potential breeding target for improvement of rice yield.
Project description:Yield and quality are the two most important traits in crop breeding. Exploring the regulatory mechanisms that affect both yield and quality traits is of great significance for understanding the molecular genetic networks controlling these key crop attributes. Expansins are cell wall loosening proteins that play important roles in regulating rice grain size. We investigated the effect of OsEXPA7, encoding an expansin, on rice grain size and quality. OsEXPA7 overexpression resulted in increased plant height, panicle length, grain length, and thousand-grain weight in rice. OsEXPA7 overexpression also affected gel consistency and amylose content in rice grains, thus affecting rice quality. Subcellular localization and tissue expression analyses showed that OsEXPA7 is localized on the cell wall and is highly expressed in the panicle. Hormone treatment experiments revealed that OsEXPA7 expression mainly responds to methyl jasmonate, brassinolide, and gibberellin. Transcriptome analysis and RT-qPCR experiments showed that overexpression of OsEXPA7 affects the expression of OsJAZs in the jasmonic acid pathway and BZR1 and GE in the brassinosteroid pathway. In addition, OsEXPA7 regulates the expression of key quantitative trait loci related to yield traits, as well as regulates the expression levels of BIP1 and bZIP50 involved in the seed storage protein biosynthesis pathway. These results reveal that OsEXPA7 positively regulates rice yield traits and negatively regulates grain quality traits by involving plant hormone pathways and other trait-related pathway genes. These findings increase our understanding of the potential mechanism of expansins in regulating rice yield and quality traits and will be useful for breeding high-yielding and high-quality rice cultivars.
Project description:In rice (Oryza sativa L.), the number of panicles, spikelets per panicle and grain weight are important components of grain yield. These characteristics are controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and are derived from variation inherent in crops.The identification of different yield related QTLs facilitates an understanding of the mechanisms involved in cereal crop yield, and may have utility in improving grain yield in cereal crops. an understanding of the mechanisms involved in cereal crop yield, and may have utility in improving grain yield in cereal crops. In the present study, We cloned and characterized a large-panicle QTL, and confirmed that the newly identified gene OsEBS (enhancing biomass and spikelet number) increased plant height, leaf size and spikelet number per panicle, leading to an average of 37.62% increase in total grain yield per plant. trait loci (QTLs) and are derived from variation inherent in crops. OsEBS-transgenic rice B10201 and B10301 and control Guichao2
Project description:Drought is a major environmental constraint affecting physiological, biochemical and molecular changes of crops, causing loss in crop productivities. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance is important for crop biotechnology. Here, we report that the rice (Oryza sativa) homeodomain-leucine zipper class IV transcription factor gene, Rice outermost cell-specific gene 10 (Roc10), improves drought tolerance and grain yield by increasing lignin accumulation in ground tissues of rice plants. Overexpression of Roc10 significantly enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic rice plants at the vegetative stages of growth with highly effective photosystem and reduction of water loss rate as compared with non-transgenic control and RNAi plants. More importantly, Roc10 overexpression plants had higher drought tolerance at the reproductive stage of growth with higher grain yield over controls under field-drought conditions. We identified downstream and putative target genes of Roc10 by using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data of rice shoots. Roc10 overexpression elevated the expression levels of lignin biosynthetic genes in shoots with a concomitant increase in accumulation of lignin. The overexpression and RNAi lines showed opposite patterns of lignin accumulation. The Roc10 is mainly expressed in the outer cell layers including epidermis and vasculature of shoots that coincides with areas of increased lignification. Furthermore, the Roc10 was found to directly bind to the promoter of PEROXIDASEN/PEROXIDASE38, a key gene in lignin biosynthesis. Together, our findings suggested that the Roc10 confers drought stress tolerance by enhancing lignin biosynthesis in ground tissues of rice plants.
Project description:Drought is a major environmental constraint affecting physiological, biochemical and molecular changes of crops, causing loss in crop productivities. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance is important for crop biotechnology. Here, we report that the rice (Oryza sativa) homeodomain-leucine zipper class IV transcription factor gene, Rice outermost cell-specific gene 10 (Roc10), improves drought tolerance and grain yield by increasing lignin accumulation in ground tissues of rice plants. Overexpression of Roc10 significantly enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic rice plants at the vegetative stages of growth with highly effective photosystem and reduction of water loss rate as compared with non-transgenic control and RNAi plants. More importantly, Roc10 overexpression plants had higher drought tolerance at the reproductive stage of growth with higher grain yield over controls under field-drought conditions. We identified downstream and putative target genes of Roc10 by using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data of rice shoots. Roc10 overexpression elevated the expression levels of lignin biosynthetic genes in shoots with a concomitant increase in accumulation of lignin. The overexpression and RNAi lines showed opposite patterns of lignin accumulation. The Roc10 is mainly expressed in the outer cell layers including epidermis and vasculature of shoots that coincides with areas of increased lignification. Furthermore, the Roc10 was found to directly bind to the promoter of PEROXIDASEN/PEROXIDASE38, a key gene in lignin biosynthesis. Together, our findings suggested that the Roc10 confers drought stress tolerance by enhancing lignin biosynthesis in ground tissues of rice plants.
Project description:Melatonin, a natural phytohormone present in most plants, plays multiple roles in plant growth and stress responses. Although melatonin biosynthesis-related genes have been suggested to possess diverse biological functions, their roles and functional mechanisms in regulating rice grain yield remain largely unexplored. Here, we revealed that a rice caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (OsCOMT) gene is involved in melatonin biosynthesis through in vitro and in vivo evidences. Transgenic assays show OsCOMT significantly delays leaf senescence at the grain filling stage, and then improves photosynthesis efficiency. Further experimental and transcriptomic data suggest that OsCOMT inhibits the degradation of chlorophyll and chloroplast, which in turn delay leaf senescence. Histological analysis also reveals the role of OsCOMT in the development of vascular bundle system in rice. The levels of melatonin and cytokinin were significantly increased in the culm of OsCOMT-overexpression plant relative to those of the wild-type (WT). In the OsCOMT-overexpression line, the cytokinin-biosynthesizing genes were up-regulated and the cytokinin-degrading genes were down-regulated, thereby increasing the cytokinin levels compared with the WT. Thus, OsCOMT-mediated vascular patterning may result from the crosstalk between melatonin and cytokinin. More importantly, OsCOMT significantly increased grain number and yield production of rice in various background, including Nipponbare (NIP) and Suken118 (SK118). Our findings show novel insights into melatonin-mediated leaf senescence and vascular patterning, and provide a new strategy to enhance rice yield production.