title: Disruption of a rice pentatricopeptide repeat protein causes a seedling-specific albino phenotype and its utilization to enhance seed purity in hybrid rice production.
abstract: The pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) gene family represents one of the largest gene families in higher plants. Accumulating data suggest that PPR proteins play a central and broad role in modulating the expression of organellar genes in plants. Here we report a rice (Oryza sativa) mutant named young seedling albino (ysa) derived from the rice thermo/photoperiod-sensitive genic male-sterile line Pei'ai64S, which is a leading male-sterile line for commercial two-line hybrid rice production. The ysa mutant develops albino leaves before the three-leaf stage, but the mutant gradually turns green and recovers to normal green at the six-leaf stage. Further investigation showed that the change in leaf color in ysa mutant is associated with changes in chlorophyll content and chloroplast development. Map-based cloning revealed that YSA encodes a PPR protein with 16 tandem PPR motifs. YSA is highly expressed in young leaves and stems, and its expression level is regulated by light. We showed that the ysa mutation has no apparent negative effects on several important agronomic traits, such as fertility, stigma extrusion rate, selfed seed-setting rate, hybrid seed-setting rate, and yield heterosis under normal growth conditions. We further demonstrated that ysa can be used as an early marker for efficient identification and elimination of false hybrids in commercial hybrid rice production, resulting in yield increases by up to approximately 537 kg ha(-1).
authors.affiliation: National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Mao-Long
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Dian-Xing
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Fu-Qing
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Gui-Lin
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Xiu-Ling
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiu-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Zhi-Jun
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Cai-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Cun-Kou
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Haiyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015415:Biomarkers; D002678:Chimera / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005298:Fertility; D017343:Genes, Plant; D006823:Hybrid Vigor; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D012275:Oryza / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype; D017440:Photoperiod; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D036226:Seedlings / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D010940:Plant Proteins; D002734:Chlorophyll