TY - JOUR
T1 - Moderate Soil Drying-Induced Alternative Splicing Provides a Potential Novel Approach for the Regulation of Grain Filling in Rice Inferior Spikelets
AU - Teng, Zhenning
AU - Zheng, Qin
AU - Liu, Bohan
AU - Meng, Shuan
AU - Zhang, Jianhua
AU - Ye, Nenghui
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971924 and 32171927), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ30349), Science and Technology Plan of Changsha City (kq2004034), and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (AoE/M-05/12, AoE/M-403/16, GRF12100318, 12103219, 12103220).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/7/2
Y1 - 2022/7/2
N2 - Poor grain filling of inferior spikelets, especially in some large-panicle rice varieties, is becoming a major limitation in breaking the ceiling of rice production. In our previous studies, we proved that post-anthesis moderate soil drying (MD) was an effective way to promote starch synthesis and inferior grain filling. As one of the most important regulatory processes in response to environmental cues and at different developmental stages, the function of alternative splicing (AS) has not yet been revealed in regulating grain filling under MD conditions. In this study, AS events at the most active grain-filling stage were identified in inferior spikelets under well-watered control (CK) and MD treatments. Of 16,089 AS events, 1840 AS events involving 1392 genes occurred differentially between the CK and MD treatments, many of which function on spliceosome, ncRNA metabolic process, starch, and sucrose metabolism, and other functions. Some of the splicing factors and starch synthesis-related genes, such as SR protein, hnRNP protein, OsAGPL2, OsAPS2, OsSSIVa, OsSSIVb, OsGBSSII, and OsISA1 showed differential AS changes under MD treatment. The expression of miR439f and miR444b was reduced due to an AS event which occurred in the intron where miRNAs were located in the MD-treated inferior spikelets. On the contrary, OsAGPL2, an AGPase encoding gene, was alternatively spliced, resulting in different transcripts with or without the miR393b binding site, suggesting a potential mechanism for miRNA-mediated gene regulation on grain filling of inferior spikelets in response to MD treatment. This study provides some new insights into the function of AS on the MD-promoted grain filling of inferior spikelets, and potential application in agriculture to increase rice yields by genetic approaches.
AB - Poor grain filling of inferior spikelets, especially in some large-panicle rice varieties, is becoming a major limitation in breaking the ceiling of rice production. In our previous studies, we proved that post-anthesis moderate soil drying (MD) was an effective way to promote starch synthesis and inferior grain filling. As one of the most important regulatory processes in response to environmental cues and at different developmental stages, the function of alternative splicing (AS) has not yet been revealed in regulating grain filling under MD conditions. In this study, AS events at the most active grain-filling stage were identified in inferior spikelets under well-watered control (CK) and MD treatments. Of 16,089 AS events, 1840 AS events involving 1392 genes occurred differentially between the CK and MD treatments, many of which function on spliceosome, ncRNA metabolic process, starch, and sucrose metabolism, and other functions. Some of the splicing factors and starch synthesis-related genes, such as SR protein, hnRNP protein, OsAGPL2, OsAPS2, OsSSIVa, OsSSIVb, OsGBSSII, and OsISA1 showed differential AS changes under MD treatment. The expression of miR439f and miR444b was reduced due to an AS event which occurred in the intron where miRNAs were located in the MD-treated inferior spikelets. On the contrary, OsAGPL2, an AGPase encoding gene, was alternatively spliced, resulting in different transcripts with or without the miR393b binding site, suggesting a potential mechanism for miRNA-mediated gene regulation on grain filling of inferior spikelets in response to MD treatment. This study provides some new insights into the function of AS on the MD-promoted grain filling of inferior spikelets, and potential application in agriculture to increase rice yields by genetic approaches.
KW - alternative splicing
KW - inferior spikelets
KW - microRNA
KW - moderate soil drying
KW - rice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135121565&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijms23147770
DO - 10.3390/ijms23147770
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35887118
AN - SCOPUS:85135121565
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 23
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 14
M1 - 7770
ER -