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Genome editing of RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 promoter delayed flowering in rice

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Abstract

The heading date of rice is a crucial agronomic traits affecting regional adaptation and grain productivity. Manipulating the vegetative growth period or delaying flowering can increase the yield and quality. The RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T (RFT1) has a critical role in flowering regulation. Here, we aimed to delay flowering in rice by reducing the expression of RFT1. For this purpose, we targeted four sites within the 0.5-kb region of RFT1 promoter for gene editing. Six homozygous mutant lines were obtained (rft1 pro-1 to rft1 pro-6), which showed delayed heading dates by 1.4–9.2 days. In addition, expression levels of Hd3a and RFT1 were significantly reduced, corroborating the late flowering phenotype. Using a dual-luciferase reporter in rice protoplast, we established that the protein level of LUC driven by the edited rft1 promoter was lower than that driven by the RFT1 promoter. In conclusion, we have developed a viable strategy to delay rice flowering by editing promoter of flower-promoting gene.

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Fig. 1

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Yaoguang Liu for providing the vector pYLCRISPR/Cas9Pubi-H. This study was supported by Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant No. 2022231), The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA28100301), Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang (YQ2022C039), Young Scientist Group Project of Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2023QNXZ02).

Funding

This study was supported by Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Grant No. 2022231), The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA28100301), Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang (YQ2022C039), Young Scientist Group Project of Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2023QNXZ02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China

    Wenyan Zhou, Qingjie Guan & Qingyun Bu

  2. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin, 150081, China

    Mingliang He, Xiaojie Tian, Qingyun Bu & Xiufeng Li

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Mingliang He

  4. Beidahuang Group Erdaohe Farm CO., LTD, Fuyuan, 156330, China

    Xinglong Yu

Authors
  1. Wenyan Zhou
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  2. Mingliang He
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  3. Xiaojie Tian
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  4. Qingjie Guan
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  5. Xinglong Yu
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  6. Qingyun Bu
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  7. Xiufeng Li
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Contributions

QYB and XFL designed and supervised the research. WYZ and MLH performed the experiments. XJT, QJG and XLY analyzed data. WYZ wrote the paper. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qingyun Bu or Xiufeng Li.

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Communicated by Longbiao Guo.

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Cite this article

Zhou, W., He, M., Tian, X. et al. Genome editing of RICE FLOWERING LOCUS T 1 promoter delayed flowering in rice. Plant Growth Regul (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-024-01118-0

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