Rice Physiology, Genetics and Breeding

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 1292

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: rice genomics; rice germplasm resource innovation; salt tolerance; gene function analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cultivated rice is not only a staple food support for around 4 billion people around the world, but also a module plant for molecular biological studies. With the rapid advancements in sequencing technology, the development of rice physiology, genetics, and breeding has clearly lagged behind the pace of genomic big data. Enhancing research in these areas will better facilitate the application of superior rice varieties and fundamental research in genomic-based plant molecular biology. Especially, the identification of novel genes and the innovation of elite rice germplasm would provide resources for rice breeding and new insights into physiological mechanisms.

In this Special Issue, we aim to exchange knowledge on any aspect related to rice genetics, physiology, and breeding and elite rice germplasm innovation. Especially, in the novel gene function analysis, genetic or physiological mechanisms. 

Dr. Weihua Qiao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 2152 KB  
Article
Genetic Interaction Effects of Heading Date Genes Hd1 and Ghd7 on Photosynthetic Traits at the Heading Stage in Rice
by Jun Shi, Yi-Jie Yan, Zhen-Hua Zhang, Ye-Yang Fan, De-Run Huang, Yu-Jun Zhu and Bo Shen
Plants 2026, 15(6), 977; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15060977 - 22 Mar 2026
Viewed by 209
Abstract
In this study, we dissect the genetic effects of two major rice heading date genes, Heading date 1 (Hd1) and Grain number, plant height, and heading date 7 (Ghd7), in the regulation of six photosynthesis-related traits: the chlorophyll a [...] Read more.
In this study, we dissect the genetic effects of two major rice heading date genes, Heading date 1 (Hd1) and Grain number, plant height, and heading date 7 (Ghd7), in the regulation of six photosynthesis-related traits: the chlorophyll a/b contents, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), and transpiration rate (Tr). Using two sets of near-isogenic lines (Z43 and Z44) derived from a Zhenshan97/Milyang46 cross, functional Hd1 increased the chlorophyll contents but decreased the photosynthesis-related parameters; however, functional Ghd7 consistently inhibited all six traits. More importantly, there is a significant epistatic interaction between them: Hd1 only enhances the photosynthetic capacity under the non-functional background of ghd7 but intensifies its photosynthesis inhibition under the functional background of Ghd7. Transcriptome analysis showed that functional Ghd7 mainly down-regulated the expression of genes related to photosynthesis and chloroplast development, and the inhibitory effect was significantly enhanced in the presence of functional Hd1. GO enrichment analysis further confirmed that the chlorophyll synthesis, photosystem assembly, and electron transfer pathways were downregulated in the bifunctional allele combination. Although Hd1 promotes chlorophyll accumulation, it reduces the actual photosynthetic efficiency, indicating that it has different regulatory paths for chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthetic function. Both physiological and molecular evidence showed that the Hd1-Ghd7 module coordinated the regulation of the heading date and photosynthetic capacity, forming a trade-off relationship between “early heading–high photosynthesis” and “late heading–low photosynthesis”. This study reveals the pleiotropy of genes at the heading stage and provides a theoretical basis for the optimization of the source–sink balance in high-yield rice breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rice Physiology, Genetics and Breeding)
Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 4167 KB  
Article
Protein Phosphatase OsPP2C55 Negatively Regulates Abscisic Acid Biosynthesis and Saline–Alkaline Tolerance in Rice
by Gang Zhang, Yi Yang, Yuhan Jing, Mengjiao Xin, Shuxian Shi, Qingshuai Chen, Ke Yao, Mengyu Su, Lijing Wang and Mingyi Jiang
Plants 2025, 14(21), 3362; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14213362 - 3 Nov 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 842
Abstract
In rice (Oryza sativa L.), the short-chain dehydrogenase protein OsABA2 plays a crucial role in regulating abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. However, little is known about the other proteins that interact with OsABA2 to regulate ABA biosynthesis. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, we identified [...] Read more.
In rice (Oryza sativa L.), the short-chain dehydrogenase protein OsABA2 plays a crucial role in regulating abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. However, little is known about the other proteins that interact with OsABA2 to regulate ABA biosynthesis. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, we identified a novel OsABA2 interacting protein OsPP2C55, which contains a serine/threonine phosphatase (family 2C) catalytic domain. The yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assay and firefly luciferase complementary imaging (LCI) assay confirmed these interactions. Subsequent studies revealed that saline–alkaline stress significantly downregulated OsPP2C55 gene expression. Meanwhile, we constructed ospp2c55 CRISPR gene knockout (ospp2c55-KO) plants using Agrobacterium genetic transformation. Compared with wild-type plants, ospp2c55-KO plants under saline–alkaline stress exhibited significantly elevated OsABA2 protein levels, leading to substantial increases in ABA content. In addition, ospp2c55-KO plants demonstrated heightened sensitivity to ABA during seed germination. Moreover, ospp2c55-KO plants improved the survival rate and stress-related indices of rice seedlings under saline–alkaline stress, and upregulated the expression of genes related to adversity stress (OsNCED1, OsNCED3, OsABA2, OsSODCc2, and OsCatB). We found that OsPP2C55 plays a negative regulatory role in ABA biosynthesis and saline–alkaline stress tolerance in rice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rice Physiology, Genetics and Breeding)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop