Search Results (3)

Chalkiness is an important grain quality trait in rice. Chalk5, encoding a vacuolar H⁺-translocating pyrophosphatase, is a major gene affecting both the percentage of grains with chalkiness (PGWC) and chalkiness degree (DEC) in rice. Reducing its expression can decrease both PGEC and DEC. In this study, the first exon of Chalk5 was edited in the elite restorer line 9311 using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and two knockout mutants were obtained, one of which did not contain the exogenous Cas9 cassette. PGWC and DEC were both significantly reduced in both mutants, while the seed setting ratio (SSR) was also significantly decreased. Staggered sowing experiments showed that the chalkiness of the mutants was insensitive to temperature during the grain-filling stage, and the head milled rice rate (HMRR) could be improved even under high-temperature conditions. Finally, in the hybrid background, the mutants showed significantly reduced PGWC and DEC without changes in other agronomic traits. The results provide important germplasm and allele resources for breeding high-yield rice varieties with superior quality, especially for high-yield indica hybrid rice varieties with superior quality in high-temperature conditions. Full article

Head milled rice is the main form of rice for sale and consumption. However, previous studies on the yield change due to the development of new cultivars in rice generally focus on grain yield but few on head milled rice yield. In this study, field experiments were conducted in two years (2019 and 2020) to compare head milled rice yield and associated traits (grain yield, milled recovery traits, and shape and chalkiness traits of rice grains) between two middle-season hybrid rice cultivars released 18 years apart, i.e., Jingliangyou 1468 (JLY1468), a recently-released cultivar with high eating quality, and Liangyoupeijiu (LYPJ), an old cultivar with high grain yield. JLY1468 had higher head milled rice yield than LYPJ by 30% in 2019 and by 33% in 2020. The higher head milled rice yield in JLY1468 than in LYPJ was attributable to improvements in both grain yield, and head milled rice rate (HMRR). The improvement in HMRR in JLY1468 compared to LYPJ was mainly attributable to a reduction in chalkiness degree, which was associated with a decrease in rice grain size. The results of this study provide evidence for the improvement in head milled rice yield in middle-season hybrid rice with the development of new cultivars in recent years. Full article

The head milled rice rate (HMRR) is the most important trait of milling quality, which affects the final yield and quality of rice. However, few genes related to HMRR have been identified and the regulatory mechanism of HMRR remains elusive. In this study, we performed a comparative analysis integrating the transcriptome sequencing of developing seeds at the grain-filling stage and a metabolome analysis of brown rice between two groups of accessions with contrasting performances in HMRR. A total of 768 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the transcriptome profiles of low-HMRR and high-HMRR accessions. In comparison to the high-HMRR accessions, 655 DEGs were up-regulated in the low-HMRR accessions, which was 4.79 folds higher than the number of down-regulated genes. These up-regulated DEGs were enriched in various metabolic and biosynthetic processes, oxidation reduction, phosphorylation, ion transport and ATP-related processes. However, the 113 down-regulated DEGs in the low-HMRR accessions were concentrated in carbohydrate metabolic processes, cell-death-related processes and defense response. Among the 30 differential metabolites, 20 and 10 metabolites were down-/up-regulated, respectively, in the accessions with low HMRR. In addition, 10 differential metabolites, including five metabolites of the shikimate pathway and five metabolites of the pyruvate pathway, were integrated into two separate pathways, starting from sucrose. Our global analysis of HMRR provides an invaluable resource for a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the genetic regulation of HMRR. Full article