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The role of phytochrome-mediated gibberellic acid signaling in the modulation of seed germination under low light stress in rice (O. sativa L.)

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Abstract

Seed germination plays cardinal roles in seedling establishment and their successive growth. However, seed germination is retarded by far-red (FR) enrichment under low light stress, and the inhibitory signalling mechanism remains ambiguous. Our results indicated that low light treatment, both in the open and growth chamber conditions, inhibits rice seed germination by decreasing the gibberellin (GA) contents. To explore the mechanism of GA-deficiency under low light stress, differential expression profiling of GA-anabolic, -catabolic, ABA -anabolic, -catabolic, and SLR1 was investigated, revealing that expression of ABA- anabolic, GA-catabolic genes and SLR1 was upregulated with a simultaneous downregulation of ABA-catabolic and GA-anabolic genes under low light treatment. These results suggested that FR-induced GA inadequacy is resulted by upregulation of SLR1 and GA-catabolism genes consequently increase DELLA that further subsided GA-responses in the germinating rice seeds. Moreover, we provided evidence that FR-induced GA inadequacy demotes rice seed germination by decreasing amylase activity, eventually decreasing the carbohydrate solubilization in the germinating seeds. Finally, we suggest that under low light stress, due to a retarded conversion of phytochrome A to their bioactive form, the ABA-catabolic genes were eventually upregulated with a simultaneous downregulation of GA-anabolic genes. Consequently, a lower GA pool fails to leverage the GA-dependent DELLA degradation, further shutting down the expected GA responses that reduce germination efficiency under FR-enriched light.

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Acknowledgements

The financial assistance received from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Darshan Panda and Soumya Mohanty have Contributed equally to the work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India

    Darshan Panda, Soumya Mohanty, Swagatika Das, Rameswar Prasad Sah, Awadhesh Kumar, Lambodar Behera & Mirza Jaynul Baig

  2. School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Baishnab C. Tripathy

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  1. Darshan Panda
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Contributions

DP and SM equally contributed to work in conceptualization, design, Material preparation, data collection, writing and statistical analysis of the work. SD done the lab work and data entry. RPS helped in data curation and visualization. AK helped in Biochemical study. LB has done the Investigation, validation, reviewing, editing and finalization of the manuscript. MJB and BCT guided in whole manuscript preparation and the physiological work.

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Correspondence to Lambodar Behera.

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Panda, D., Mohanty, S., Das, S. et al. The role of phytochrome-mediated gibberellic acid signaling in the modulation of seed germination under low light stress in rice (O. sativa L.). Physiol Mol Biol Plants 28, 585–605 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-022-01167-7

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