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Molecular characterization and functional analysis of “fruit-weight2.2-like” gene family in rice

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Abstract

Tomato fruit-weight 2.2 (FW2.2) was reported to control up to 30 % fruit weight. Recent studies demonstrated that FW2.2-like (FWL) genes also play important roles in plant growth and development. For instance, a maize homolog of FW2.2, named cell number regulator 1 (CNR1), negatively regulates plant and organ size. However, FWL genes in rice have not been characterized yet. In this study, eight FWL genes were identified in rice genome and designated as OsFWL1-8. The chromosome location, gene structure, protein motif, and phylogenetic relationship of OsFWL genes were analyzed. RT-PCR result and microarray data revealed that OsFWL genes exhibited diverse expression patterns and the detailed expression patterns of OsFWL5, 6, and 7 negatively correlated with leaf growth activity. Rice protoplast transient transformation experiment showed that most OsFWL proteins locate at cell membrane but OsFWL8 is present in the nucleus. In addition, the functions of OsFWL genes were investigated by analyzing two T-DNA insertion lines for OsFWL3 and 5. Compared with wild type, the grain weight of osfwl3 mutant and the plant height of osfwl5 mutant were increased by 5.3 and 12.5 %, respectively. We also found that the increase in grain length of osfwl3 mutant was due chiefly to incremental cell number, not cell size and the expression of OsFWL3 negatively correlated with glume growth activity. These results provide a comprehensive foundation for further study of OsFWL functions in rice.

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Abbreviations

aa:

Amino acid(s)

CNR1:

Cell Number Regulator 1

FW2.2:

Fruit-weight 2.2

FWL:

FW2.2-like

OsFWL:

Oryza sativa FW2.2-like

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Guo-liang Wang for the gift of subcellular localization vector. We also thank RMD and POSTECH for the offer of T-DNA insertion mutants and public laboratory of electron microscopy in Huazhong Agricultural University for technical assistance with scanning electron microscope. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30971748).

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Correspondence to Meizhong Luo.

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Xu, J., Xiong, W., Cao, B. et al. Molecular characterization and functional analysis of “fruit-weight2.2-like” gene family in rice. Planta 238, 643–655 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-013-1916-y

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