State Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Breeding, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
National Nanfan Research Institute (Sanya), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sanya, 572024, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 1;15(1):9453. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53611-9.
The abounding variations in wild rice provided potential reservoirs of beneficial genes for rice breeding. Maintaining stable and high yields under environmental stresses is a long-standing goal of rice breeding but is challenging due to internal trade-off mechanisms. Here, we report wild rice GL12 improves grain length and salt tolerance in both indica and japonica genetic backgrounds. GL12 alters cell length by regulating grain size related genes including GS2, and positively regulates the salt tolerance related genes, such as NAC5, NCED3, under salt stresses. We find that a G/T variation in GL12 promoter determined its binding to coactivator GIF1 and transcription factor WRKY53. GIF1 promotes GL12 expression in young panicle and WRKY53 represses GL12 expression under salt stresses. The G/T variation also contributes to the divergence of indica and japonica subspecies. Our results provide useful resources for modern rice breeding and shed insights for understanding yield and salt tolerance trade-off mechanism.
野生稻丰富的变异为水稻育种提供了有益基因的潜在库。在环境胁迫下保持稳定和高产是水稻育种的长期目标，但由于内部权衡机制，这具有挑战性。在这里，我们报告野生稻 GL12 可以改善籼稻和粳稻遗传背景下的粒长和耐盐性。GL12 通过调节包括 GS2 在内的与粒大小相关的基因来改变细胞长度，并在盐胁迫下正向调节与耐盐性相关的基因，如 NAC5、NCED3。我们发现 GL12 启动子中的一个 G/T 变异决定了它与共激活因子 GIF1 和转录因子 WRKY53 的结合。GIF1 在幼穗中促进 GL12 的表达，而 WRKY53 在盐胁迫下抑制 GL12 的表达。这种 G/T 变异也导致了籼稻和粳稻亚种的分化。我们的研究结果为现代水稻育种提供了有用的资源，并为理解产量和耐盐性权衡机制提供了新的见解。
