Abstract
Key message
Knocking out OsVQ1 in rice released OsMPK6 for activation and in turn promoted H 2 O 2 accumulation, which repressed the expression of flowering-promoting genes, thus delaying rice flowering but enhancing disease resistance.
Abstract
The valine–glutamine (VQ) protein family, which contains the conserved motif FxxxVQxLTG (“x” represents any amino acid), plays a crucial role in plant growth and immunity along with mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades. However, only a few rice VQ proteins have been functionally characterized, and the roles of the MAPK-VQ module in rice biological processes are not fully understood. Here, we investigated the role of OsVQ1 in rice disease resistance and the control of flowering time. The OsVQ1-knock out (KO) mutants exhibited increased resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pathovars, accumulated high levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and showed a late flowering phenotype under natural long-day conditions, while the OsVQ1-overexpressing plants showed phenotypes similar to that of the wild type. Further studies revealed that OsVQ1 physically interacted with and inhibited OsMPK6 activity. In addition, OsVQ1 expression was downregulated by the pathogen-induced OsMPKK10.2-OsMPK6-OsWRKY45 cascade, suggesting a feedback loop between OsVQ1 and OsMPK6. Moreover, the OsVQ1-KO/osmpk6 double-mutant exhibited increased susceptibility to X. oryzae infection and showed an early flowering phenotype, which may partially be attributed to the reduced accumulation of H2O2 and the consequent up-expression of flowering-promoting genes. These results suggested that the OsVQ1-OsMPK6 module was involved in rice immunity and flowering.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772145 to S.W. and 31901865 to H.M.).
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WP, MH, and WS designed the study; WP, LJ, ZZ, and MH performed the experiments and analyzed the data; ZQ, LX, and XJ provided experiments support; MH wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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299_2021_2766_MOESM1_ESM.pptx
Supplementary file1 Supplementary Fig. 1 The sequencing results of off-target sites of target site 1 (a) and 2 (b) in OsVQ1-KO plants. The putative off-target sites are indicated with rectangles. Supplementary Fig. 2 OsVQ1 expression in OsVQ1 overexpressing (oe) transgenic plants. Bars represent mean (3 replicates) ± SE. (PPTX 155 KB)
299_2021_2766_MOESM2_ESM.doc
Supplementary file2 Supplementary Table 1 Primers used for vector construction and gene expression analysis. Supplementary Table 2 The putative off-target sites of CRISPR/Cas9 system in OsVQ1-KO plants. (DOC 61 KB)
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Wang, P., Li, J., Zhang, Z. et al. OsVQ1 links rice immunity and flowering via interaction with a mitogen-activated protein kinase OsMPK6. Plant Cell Rep 40, 1989–1999 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02766-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02766-6