Plant Stress Biology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India.
National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, Punjab, India.
Physiol Plant. 2024 Nov-Dec;176(6):e14632. doi: 10.1111/ppl.14632.
Developing rice types with shorter life cycle without compromising yield is vital for sustainable agriculture, as it can significantly reduce water and fertilizer consumption while enabling early harvest. Despite recent advancements in identifying the genes associated with heading date, the intricate regulatory network governing this process remains largely unexplored. In rice, one such gene, GHD7 (QTL for grain-heading-date on chromosome 7), encodes a CCT (CONSTANS, CONSTANS-LIKE and TIMING OF CAB1) domain protein and plays a pivotal role in regulating flowering time and associated developmental processes. To gain insight into the role of OsGHD7 in improving yield, we have overexpressed OsGHD7 in the widely cultivated and photoperiod-insensitive rice variety IR64. This led to notable phenotypic changes in rice, including tiller number and grain number (66% increase), along with the promotion of early flowering (8-9 days preponement). Interestingly, these plants also exhibited enhanced tolerance to drought and salinity stress and showed better post-stress recovery. This study emphasizes the potential of manipulating the multifaceted genetic determinants of key traits to optimize rice productivity under changing climate conditions.
培育生育周期更短但不影响产量的水稻品种对于可持续农业至关重要，因为这可以显著减少水和肥料的消耗，同时实现早期收获。尽管最近在鉴定与抽穗期相关的基因方面取得了进展，但控制这一过程的复杂调控网络在很大程度上仍未被探索。在水稻中，一个这样的基因 GHD7（位于第 7 号染色体上的粒期基因），编码一个 CCT（CONSTANS、CONSTANS-LIKE 和 TIMING OF CAB1）结构域蛋白，在调节开花时间和相关发育过程中起着关键作用。为了深入了解 OsGHD7 在提高产量方面的作用，我们在广泛种植且对光周期不敏感的水稻品种 IR64 中过表达了 OsGHD7。这导致水稻出现了显著的表型变化，包括分蘖数和粒数（增加 66%），并促进了早期开花（提前 8-9 天）。有趣的是，这些植物还表现出对干旱和盐胁迫的增强耐受性，并在胁迫后表现出更好的恢复能力。这项研究强调了操纵关键性状的多方面遗传决定因素的潜力，以优化水稻在气候变化条件下的生产力。
