Abstract
Increased crop yields are required to support rapid population growth worldwide. Grain weight is a key component of rice yield, but the underlying molecular mechanisms that control it remain elusive. Here, we report the cloning and characterization of a new quantitative trait locus (QTL) for the control of rice grain length, weight and yield. This locus, GL3.1, encodes a protein phosphatase kelch (PPKL) family — Ser/Thr phosphatase. GL3.1 is a member of the large grain WY3 variety, which is associated with weaker dephosphorylation activity than the small grain FAZ1 variety. GL3.1-WY3 influences protein phosphorylation in the spikelet to accelerate cell division, thereby resulting in longer grains and higher yields. Further studies have shown that GL3.1 directly dephosphorylates its substrate, Cyclin-T1;3, which has only been rarely studied in plants. The downregulation of Cyclin-T1;3 in rice resulted in a shorter grain, which indicates a novel function for Cyclin-T in cell cycle regulation. Our findings suggest a new mechanism for the regulation of grain size and yield that is driven through a novel phosphatase-mediated process that affects the phosphorylation of Cyclin-T1;3 during cell cycle progression, and thus provide new insight into the mechanisms underlying crop seed development. We bred a new variety containing the natural GL3.1 allele that demonstrated increased grain yield, which indicates that GL3.1 is a powerful tool for breeding high-yield crops.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Mr Xiao-Yan Gao, Mr Xiao-Shu Gao and Mr Wei-fang Jiang for assistance with transmission electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry, respectively. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB944800 and 2012AA10A302), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31130071 and 31121063), the Ministry of Agriculture of China (2009ZX08009-102B), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX3-EW-N-01), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (CUHK466011 and CUHK2/CRF/11G) and the CAS-Croucher Foundation.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary information, Figure S1
FAZ1 and NIL agricultural traits and grain quality. (PDF 458 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S2
Phenotypic characterization of Huanghuazhan and Huanghuazhan (GL3.1) grains. (PDF 258 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S3
Sequence alignment of GL3.1 from FAZ1 and WY3 with other large grain rice varieties. (PDF 1085 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S4
Analysis of transgenic lines overexpressing GL3.1-WY3, GL3.1-M1, GL3.1-M2. (PDF 430 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S5
Sequence alignment of GL3.1's promoter from FAZ1 and WY3. (PDF 693 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S6
The expression pattern of GL3.1 in FAZ1 and NIL. (PDF 307 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S7
Sequence alignment of phopshatase domain of GL3.1 and PP2A. (PDF 309 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S8
The expression pattern of Cyclin-T1;3 in FAZ1 and NIL. (PDF 217 kb)
Supplementary information, Figure S9
Genomic alignment of GL3.1 from a variety of species. (PDF 382 kb)
Table S1
Influence of GL3 on differential protein expression in young FAZ1 and NIL spikelets. (PDF 19 kb)
Table S2
Proteins with different phosphorylation status between FAZ1 and NIL. (PDF 36 kb)
Table S3
Gene Ontology analysis of phosphoproteins. (PDF 19 kb)
Table S4
The primers used for GL3 study. (PDF 21 kb)
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Qi, P., Lin, YS., Song, XJ. et al. The novel quantitative trait locus GL3.1 controls rice grain size and yield by regulating Cyclin-T1;3. Cell Res 22, 1666–1680 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2012.151
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2012.151
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