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Rice OsPEX1, an extensin-like protein, affects lignin biosynthesis and plant growth

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Abstract

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Rice leucine-rich repeat extensin-like protein OsPEX1 mediates the intersection of lignin deposition and plant growth.

Abstract

Lignin, a major structural component of secondary cell wall, is essential for normal plant growth and development. However, the molecular and genetic regulation of lignin biosynthesis is not fully understood in rice. Here we report the identification and characterization of a rice semi-dominant dwarf mutant (pex1) with stiff culm. Molecular and genetic analyses revealed that the pex1 phenotype was caused by ectopic expression of a leucine-rich repeat extension-like gene, OsPEX1. Interestingly, the pex1 mutant showed significantly higher lignin content and increased expression levels of lignin-related genes compared with wild type plants. Conversely, OsPEX1-suppresssed transgenics displayed low lignin content and reduced transcriptional abundance of genes associated with lignin biosynthesis, indicating that the OsPEX1 mediates lignin biosynthesis and/or deposition in rice. When OsPEX1 was ectopically expressed in rice cultivars with tall stature that lacks the allele of semi-dwarf 1, well-known green revolution gene, the resulting transgenic plants displayed reduced height and enhanced lodging resistance. Our study uncovers a causative effect between the expression of OsPEX1 and lignin deposition. Lastly, we demonstrated that modulating OsPEX1 expression could provide a tool for improving rice lodging resistance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30900884, 31622041, 31471788 and 31671594); by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant Nos. 2014A030313457 and 2015A020209118); by the Hatch Project of National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S.D.A (Grant No. 02413).

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Author notes

  1. Shanwen Ke and Xin Luan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Engineering Research Center of Grassland Science, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Shanwen Ke, Xin Luan, Jiayan Liang & Xiang-Qian Zhang

  2. Plants for Human Health Institute, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, NC, 28081, USA

    Yu-Hung Hung & Tzung-Fu Hsieh

  3. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Yu-Hung Hung & Tzung-Fu Hsieh

Authors
  1. Shanwen Ke
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  4. Yu-Hung Hung
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Contributions

SK and XL performed experiments and conducted fieldwork. JL and YHH worked on the transgenic lines. TFH and XQZ designed the experiments and analyzed the data; TFH supervised and complemented the writing; XQZ conceived the project and wrote the article with contributions of all the authors.

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Correspondence to Tzung-Fu Hsieh or Xiang-Qian Zhang.

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Ke, S., Luan, X., Liang, J. et al. Rice OsPEX1, an extensin-like protein, affects lignin biosynthesis and plant growth. Plant Mol Biol 100, 151–161 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-019-00849-3

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