Journal
JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY
Volume 61, Issue 11, Pages 1171-1185Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/jipb.12745
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Major Research Project of Natural Science Foundation of China [91735304]
- Major Science and Technology Project to Create New Crop Cultivars using Gene Transfer Technology [2016ZX08001006]
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFD0100301]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Grain size is an important determinant of yield potential in crops. We previously demonstrated that natural mutations in the regulatory sequences of qSW5/GW5 confer grain width diversity in rice. However, the biological function of a GW5 homolog, named GW5-Like (GW5L), remains unknown. In this study, we report on GW5L knockout mutants in Kitaake, a japonica cultivar (cv.) considered to have a weak gw5 variant allele that confers shorter and wider grains. GW5L is evenly expressed in various tissues, and its protein product is localized to the plasma membrane. Biochemical assays verified that GW5L functions in a similar fashion to GW5. It positively regulates brassinosteroid (BR) signaling through repression of the phosphorylation activity of GSK2. Genetic data show that GW5L overexpression in either Kitaake or a GW5 knockout line, Kasa(orf3) (indica cv. Kasalath background), causes more slender, longer grains relative to the wild-type. We also show that GW5L could confer salt stress resistance through an association with calmodulin protein OsCaM1-1. These findings identify GW5L as a negative regulator of both grain size and salt stress tolerance, and provide a potential target for breeders to improve grain yield and salt stress resistance in rice.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available