Long Noncoding RNA Ef-cd Promotes Maturity Without Yield Penalty in Rice

doi:10.11983/CBB19163

Abstract

Abstract: In rice breeding, ‘high yielding’ and ‘early maturing’ are negative-reciprocally regulated traits. A recent study identified a major maturity duration regulatory gene, Early flowering-completely dominant (Ef-cd), which encodes a long noncoding RNA. Ef-cd IncRNA overlaps with the antisense transcript of the OsSOC1 gene. Ef-cd positively regulates the expression of OsSOC1 and H3K36me3 deposition. Varieties and their derivatived hybrids harboring Ef-cd allele show 7-20 d early-maturation compared to their respective wild types at different latitudes, but without a concomitant yield penalty. Moreover, among 1 439 elite hybrid rice varieties, all of the hybrid cultivars with homozygous or heterozygous Ef-cd alleles mature significantly earlier. The mechanism of Ef-cd-promoted maturity without yield penalty is attributed to its facilitating nitrogen utilization and improving photosynthesis. Thus, Ef-cd may balance early maturating with stable grain yield, and can be used for molecular design breeding in rice.

Key words: rice, lncRNA, heading date, yield

Shuo Zhang, Changyin Wu. Long Noncoding RNA Ef-cd Promotes Maturity Without Yield Penalty in Rice[J]. Chinese Bulletin of Botany, 2019, 54(5): 550-553.

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URL: https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/10.11983/CBB19163

https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/Y2019/V54/I5/550

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