New progress has been made in the study of rice spike germination

recent years, due to the global temperature rise, typhoons, rainstorms and other extreme weather frequent appearance, the risk of sprouting increased year by year, the affected area continues to expand, seriously affecting the yield and quality of rice, wheat and other crops. It has been found that the darker the seed color, the stronger the seed sleepability and the stronger the resistance to spike germination, but the molecular mechanism of this correlation is still unclear.
recently, Fang Jun, a researcher at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published a new research paper on
, providing experimental evidence on the correlation between skin color and spike germination resistance at the molecular level.
The team obtained a spike germination mutant in the early stages, and found in the process of genetic positioning through hybridization with sleepy rice varieties (red skins): the appearance of shallow skin color and decreased germination rate of spikes in the offspring of red skins. Genetic analysis determined that the base of controlling spike germination,
, is an important regulatory factor in the ABA signaling pathway, and the base of controlling seed skin color,
, is a transcription factor that regulates the biosynthetic synthesis of primary flower pigment, the main part of red skin. ABA content increased slightly in
of red skin, but ABA signal gene expression increased significantly, especially
gene expression. Further studies have found that the phenomenon of red skin inhibition of spike germination is related to the synergetic interaction between OsVP1, Rc and OSC1, another regulatory factor, which enhances the sensitivity of seeds to ABA by promoting biosynthetic and ABA signaling of primary flower pigment, and ultimately inhibits spike germination; On the basis of cloning the spike germination genes
,
,
and
in the early stage, the team further established the link between skin color and spike germination resistance from the molecular level by studying the relationship between the
,
and
genes, and made new progress in the study of the molecular mechanism of anti-spike germination. This study provides an important reference for the study of spike-resistant germination of cereal crops, as well as an important theoretical basis for ensuring food quality and food security.
the study was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Strategic Pilot Science and Technology Project, the National Key Research and Development Project, the Heilongjiang Provincial Distinguished Youth Fund and the China Postdoctoral Science Fund. (Source: Zhang Qingdan, China Science Journal)
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