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Trichomes function in plant defenses against biotic and abiotic stresses; examination of glabrous lines, which lack trichomes, has revealed key aspects of trichome development and function. Tests of allelism in 51 glabrous rice (Oryza sativa) accessions collected worldwide identified OsSPL10 and OsWOX3B as regulators of trichome development in rice. Here, we report that OsSPL10 acts as a transcriptional regulator controlling trichome development. Haplotype and transient expression analyses revealed that variation in the approximately 700-bp OsSPL10 promoter region is the primary cause of the glabrous phenotype in the indica cultivar WD-17993. Disruption of OsSPL10 by genome editing decreased leaf trichome density and length in the NIL-HL6 background. Plants with genotype OsSPL10WD-17993 /HL6 generated by crossing WD-17993 with NIL-HL6 also had fewer trichomes in the glumes. HAIRY LEAF6 (HL6) encodes another transcription factor that regulates trichome initiation and elongation, and OsSPL10 directly binds to the HL6 promoter to regulate its expression. Moreover, the transcript levels of auxin-related genes, such as OsYUCCA5 and OsPIN-FORMED1b, were altered in OsSPL10 overexpression and RNAi transgenic lines. Feeding tests using locusts (Locusta migratoria) demonstrated that non-glandular trichomes affect feeding by this herbivore. Our findings provide a molecular framework for trichome development and an ecological perspective on trichome functions.

Appearance and taste are important factors in rice (Oryza sativa) grain quality. Here, we investigated the taste scores and related eating-quality traits of 533 diverse cultivars to assess the relationships between-and genetic basis of-rice taste and eating-quality. A genome-wide association study highlighted the Wx gene as the major factor underlying variation in taste and eating quality. Notably, a novel waxy (Wx) allele, Wxla , which combined two mutations from Wxb and Wxin , exhibited a unique phenotype. Reduced GBSSI activity conferred Wxla rice with both a transparent appearance and good eating quality. Haplotype analysis revealed that Wxla was derived from intragenic recombination. In fact, the recombination rate at the Wx locus was estimated to be 3.34 kb/cM, which was about 75-fold higher than the genome-wide mean, indicating that intragenic recombination is a major force driving diversity at the Wx locus. Based on our results, we propose a new network for Wx evolution, noting that new Wx alleles could easily be generated by crossing genotypes with different Wx alleles. This study thus provides insights into the evolution of the Wx locus and facilitates molecular breeding for quality in rice. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) hybrid rice has made a great contribution to the increase of rice yield globally. To facilitate the development of high-quality pairs of the wild abortive (WA) male sterile and maintainer lines, the genetic basis of fertility restoration of WA-CMS and stigma exsertion was investigated in this study using a testcross population with the WA-CMS background. Seed-setting rate and stigma exsertion rate were used as the indicators of the two traits, respectively. Results showed that four minor QTL regions from 9311 were responsible for the variation of seed-setting rate, while a few minor QTLs and epistatic QTL pairs influenced stigma exsertion rate. These results would be of great use in the development of high-quality pairs of WA male sterile and maintainer lines in rice.

The size of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) grains has been altered by both domestication and artificial selection over the course of evolutionary history. Several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain size have been cloned in the past 10 yr. To explore the natural variation in these QTLs, resequencing of grain width and weight 2 (GW2), grain size 5 (GS5) and QTL for seed width 5 (qSW5) and genotyping of grain size 3 (GS3) were performed in the germplasms of 127 varieties of rice (O. sativa) and 10-15 samples of wild rice (Oryza rufipogon). Ten, 10 and 15 haplotypes were observed for GW2, GS5 and qSW5. qSW5 and GS3 had the strongest effects on grain size, which have been widely utilized in rice production, whereas GW2 and GS5 showed more modest effects. GS5 showed small sequence variations in O. sativa germplasm and that of its progenitor O. rufipogon. qSW5 exhibited the highest level of nucleotide diversity. GW2 showed signs of purifying selection. The four grain size genes experienced different selection intensities depending on their genetic effects. In the indica population, linkage disequilibrium (LD) was detected among GS3, qSW5 and GS5. The substantial genetic variation in these four genes provides the flexibility needed to design various rice grain shapes. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary features of grain size genes in rice.

With 5 figures and 5 tables Abstract The phenomenon of degenerated spikelets is very common in cereal crops, and considered as a serious physiological defect to grain production. However, little is known about the genetic base of the spikelet degeneration in rice. To identify genetic factors conferring spikelet degeneration in rice, a line showing severe degenerated spikelets on the top of panicle was selected from a set of chromosomal segment substitution lines that derived from a cross of the sequenced japonica variety ‘Nipponbare’ and the indica variety ‘9311’. Using its derived progeny, two quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the degenerated spikelets were identified on chromosomes 3 and 9. The one on chromosome 3 was confirmed in an about 600-kb physical interval, and had an epistatic interaction with the other QTL on chromosome 9. The QTL region on chromosome 3 was also found conferring primary panicle length, heading date, the number of primary branches and second branches simultaneously. These results would be helpful in understanding the genetic control of spikelet degeneration on the top of panicle in rice.

Analyses of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for expression levels (eQTLs) of genes reveal a genetic relationship between expression variation and the regulator, thus unlocking information for identifying the regulatory network. Oligo-nucleotide expression microarrays hybridized with RNA can simultaneously provide data for molecular markers and transcript abundance. In this study, we used an Affymetrix GeneChip Rice Genome Array to analyze eQTLs in rice shoots at 72 h after germination from 110 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between Zhenshan 97 and Minghui 63. In total, 1632 single-feature polymorphisms (SFPs) plus 23 PCR markers were identified and placed into 601 recombinant bins, spanning 1459 cM in length, which were used as markers to genotype the RILs. We obtained 16,372 expression traits (e-traits) each with at least one eQTL, resulting in 26,051 eQTLs in total, including both cis- and trans-eQTLs. We also identified 171 eQTL hot spots in the rice genome, each of which controls transcript variations of many e-traits. Gene ontology analysis revealed an enrichment of certain functional categories of genes in some of the eQTL hot spots. In particular, eQTLs for e-traits involving the DNA metabolic process was significantly enriched in several eQTL hot spots on chromosomes 3, 5 and 10. Several e-traits co-localizing with cis-eQTLs showed significant correlations with hundreds of e-traits, indicating possible co-regulation. We also detected correlations between QTLs for shoot dry weight and eQTLs, revealing possible candidate genes for the trait. These results provided clues for the identification and characterization of the regulatory network in the whole genome at the transcriptional level.

The genetic mechanism underlying the relationship between three traits of the primary sink size - spikelet number per panicle (SNP), panicle number per plant (PN), and 1000-grain weight (GWT), and their 10 component traits in rice was dissected in 292 F 13 recombinant inbred lines using a complete linkage map. A total of 43 genomic regions on 12 rice chromosomes were found to contain quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting the sink size traits, which revealed several important aspects of the genetic basis of sink capacity in rice. First, QTLs for SNP, PN and GWT were largely independent. Secondly, most QTLs affecting SNP and GWT showed close characteristics in both genomic locations and directions of effects to QTLs for their components, suggesting that pleiotropy, rather than linkage, was the primary genetic basis of the correlated panicle and grain traits. Thirdly, some QTLs affecting component traits did not contribute to SNP or GWT. In these cases, two or more QTLs with opposite effects on their component traits were detected, which could be due to either linkage or pleiotropy. Fourthly, some QTLs had large effects on panicle number (QPn4), panicle branching and length (QPbn3a, QPbn3b and QPbl4), grain length and volume (QGl3, QGl5 and QGv2), and grain shape (QGsl and QGs7), which were consistently detected in the related rice mapping populations and in different environments, providing good candidates and useful information for marker-aided improvement of sink size and yield potential of rice.

A greater understanding of the genetics of responses to water deficit/drought may be helpful in improving water-deficit resistance in the early stages of growth in rice. A recombinant inbred population derived from a cross between Zhenshan 97 and Minghui 63 was grown in hydroponic culture to characterize the responses of seedlings to water deficit imposed by PEG 6000 and to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for seedling characteristics under both well-watered and water-deficit conditions. Generally, the two parents showed significant differences in plant height (PH), maximum root length (MRL), shoot fresh weight (SFW), root fresh weight (RFW), number of roots and root:shoot ratio based on fresh weight under both well-watered and water-deficit conditions. For two parents, PH and SFW were significantly inhibited under water deficit. However, the other four traits had larger values under water deficit. Among 26 and 34 QTLs detected for the six traits studied under the well-watered and water-deficit conditions, respectively, a total of 14 QTLs for SFW, PH, RFW and MRL (23% of total QTLs detected) were detected in similar or tight linkage regions in both conditions. Among 11 intervals on 7 chromosomes identified to harbor multiple QTLs, 8 intervals were found to affect related traits under the two water supply conditions and 3 intervals were observed to be water supply-specific regions and had effects only under well-watered conditions, suggesting that water supply-specific regions or QTLs may be closely associated with the responses of lines to water deficit in the study. Several regions for the traits studied were also found to affect the root-related traits in previous studies and might be used in marker-assisted selection for drought-resistant rice in breeding programs.