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Cold-upregulated glycosyltransferase gene 1 (OsCUGT1) plays important roles in rice height and spikelet fertility

  • Regular Paper – Genetics/Developmental Biology
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Abstract

Glycosyltransferases (GTs) regulate many physiological processes and stress responses in plants. However, little is known about the function of GT in rice development. In this study, molecular analyses revealed that the expression of a rice GT gene (Cold-Upregulated Glycosyltransferase Gene 1, CUGT1) is developmentally controlled and stress-induced. OsCUGT1 was knocked out by using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system to obtain the mutant oscugt1, which showed a severe dwarf and sterility phenotype. Further cytological analyses indicated that the dwarfism seen in the oscugt1 mutant might be caused by fewer and smaller cells. Histological pollen analysis suggests that the spikelet sterility in oscugt1 mutants may be caused by abnormal microsporogenesis. Moreover, multiple transgenic plants with knockdown of OsCUGT1 expression through RNA interference were obtained, which also showed obvious defects in plant height and fertility. RNA sequencing revealed that multiple biological processes associated with phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, cytokinin metabolism and pollen development are affected in the oscugt1 mutant. Overall, these results suggest that rice OsCUGT1 plays an essential role in rice development.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31500219 and 31960615).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Region (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences/Institute of Agro-Bioengineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Lanxin Zhao, Hui Liu, Kangli Peng & Xiaozhen Huang

  2. College of Tea Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Xiaozhen Huang

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  1. Lanxin Zhao
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  2. Hui Liu
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  4. Xiaozhen Huang
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Correspondence to Xiaozhen Huang.

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Zhao, L., Liu, H., Peng, K. et al. Cold-upregulated glycosyltransferase gene 1 (OsCUGT1) plays important roles in rice height and spikelet fertility. J Plant Res 136, 383–396 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-023-01455-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-023-01455-7

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