Rice Science

Rice Science

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

OsELF3.1-OsCATA-Ghd7 Pathway Regulates Rice Heading

  1. State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China National Center for Rice Improvement, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 311400, China; Key Laboratory of Northern Japonica Rice Research in Heilongjiang Province, Baoqing Northern Rice Research Center, Northern Rice Research Center of China National Rice Research Institute, Shuangyashan 155600, China; #These authors contributed equally to this work
  • Contact: WU Weixun; CHENG Shihua; CAO Liyong
  • Supported by:

    This study was funded by Biological Breeding-National Science and Technology Major Projects, China (Grant No. 2023ZD04066), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. LZ24C130006, LTGN24C130007), the Open Project Program of the State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China (Grant No. 20240107), Xinan League Science and Technology Project, China (Grant No. 2023DXZD0001), Joint Research and Development of Rice Breeding in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China (Grant No. YZ2023004), China Agriculture Research System (Grant No. CARS-01), Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (Grant No. CPSIBRF-CNRRI-202301), and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program. We thank the Public Laboratory of the China National Rice Research Institute for their technical support in subcellular localization and BiFC assays.

PDF

Supplement

1

Abstract: Rice, a critical global staple crop, relies heavily on heading date, a key agronomic trait marking the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. Understanding the genetic regulation of heading date is vital for enhancing the adaptability of high-quality rice varieties across diverse geographical regions and for bolstering local food security. In this study, we uncover a novel role for OsCATA, a catalase gene, in the regulation of photoperiodic flowering in rice. We identified a novel allele of OsELF3.1, whose mutation resulted in delayed heading. Further analyses revealed that OsELF3.1 physically interacts with OsCATA. Notably, OsCATA exhibits rhythmic expression patterns similar to OsELF3.1 and, when mutated, also delayed flowering. Expression analyses showed that the delayed heading phenotype could be attributed to elevated Ghd7 expression under both long-day (LD) and short-day (SD) conditions, with OsCATA expression positively regulated by OsELF3.1. Double mutants of OsELF3.1 and OsCATA displayed a heading delay similar to the that of oself3.1 single mutant. Additionally, OsELF3.1 was shown to interact with Ghd7 in vivo, alleviating its suppression of Ehd1. Luciferase assays confirmed that Ghd7 represses Ehd1 expression, while OsELF3.1 mitigates this repression. Collectively, our findings reveal that OsCATA is critical in suppressing Ghd7 expression through the OsELF3.1-OsCATA-Ghd7 transcriptional pathway, thereby regulating rice heading.

Key words: rice, heading date, OsELF3.1, Ghd7, OsCATA