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Modification of plant height via RNAi suppression of OsGA20ox2 gene in rice

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Abstract

GA 20-oxidase (GA20ox) is a regulatory enzyme for the syntheses of biologically active GAs in plants. The loss-of-function mutations in OsGA20ox2 of rice (Oryza sativa L.) generate the well-known Green Revolution gene sd-1, which cause the semi-dwarfism phenotype. In our present investigation, semi-dwarf plants were generated from a taller rice variety QX1 by RNAi suppression on the expression of OsGA20ox2. The 531bp-fragment of OsGA20ox2 was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of QX1 and used to construct the hairpin RNAi vector pCQK2. The wild type QX1 was transformed with pCQK2 by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and some independent transgenic RNAi lines exhibited semi-dwarfism. RT-PCR and Northern blot analyses showed that the expression of OsGA20ox2 was specifically suppressed in the RNAi semi-dwarf lines. Endogenous GA assays revealed that the contents of the GA20ox2-catalyzed products GA19, GA20 and the down-stream biologically active GA1 were drastically reduced in the RNAi semi-dwarf lines. We further showed that the RNAi semi-dwarf lines could be restored to normal plant height by applying exogenous GA3. The results indicated that the semi-dwarfism of the RNAi semi-dwarf lines was associated with the decreased expression of OsGA20ox2 gene and the reduced content of endogenous biologically active GA1. Analyses of panicle length, seeds per panicle and 1000-grain weight suggested that the RNAi semi-dwarf lines showed stable grain yield compared with the wild type plants. It is demonstrated that the RNAi approach could be useful for plant breeding purposes in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Chong K. (Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences) for providing the pTCK303 RNAi vector. We are grateful to Professor Mander L.N. (Australian National University, Canberra) for kindly providing us the internal standards of GAs. We would also like to thank Prof. Jiang X.N. (College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University) for his help for the measurement of the endogenous GA contents. This work was supported by the Outstanding Researcher Fellowship from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Zhao K.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of life sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Feng Qiao & Qing Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics & Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Chun-Lian Wang, Ying-Lun Fan, Xue-Feng Wu & Kai-Jun Zhao

  3. National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Beijing, 100081, China

    Feng Qiao, Chun-Lian Wang, Ying-Lun Fan, Xue-Feng Wu & Kai-Jun Zhao

  4. IRRI-China Office, Beijing, 100081, China

    Kai-Jun Zhao

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  1. Feng Qiao
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  2. Qing Yang
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  3. Chun-Lian Wang
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  4. Ying-Lun Fan
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Correspondence to Kai-Jun Zhao.

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Qing Yang, Chun-Lian Wang have contributed equally to this work.

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Qiao, F., Yang, Q., Wang, CL. et al. Modification of plant height via RNAi suppression of OsGA20ox2 gene in rice. Euphytica 158, 35–45 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-007-9422-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-007-9422-6

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