BRI, CAAS decoded the dynamic epigenetic regulation of flowering time in rice
Epigenetic research group at the Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), led by Professor Xiaofeng Gu, recently made a breakthrough by decoding the epigenetic regulation of flowering time in rice. They have found a key epigenetic regulator OsSFL1 that function as mediating dynamic histone deacetylation and regulate flowering time in rice. Related research results are published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal.
More than 80% of human food comes from flowering plants. Early or late flowering affect the seed setting and yield, therefore, “timely flower” is a key factor to ensure crop yield and environmental adaptability. Rice, as one of the world's major crops, require high-yielding and adaptable varieties for increased agricultural productivity. Rice flowering time is an important agronomic trait that could affect the area, time and seed yield. Therefore, understanding the mechanism underlying the timely flower and selection of suitable floral varieties lay on an important theoretical and practical role for increasing yield and expanding the planting area.
Rice is a facultative short-day plant. Under short-day conditions, rice flowering is mainly controlled by photoperiod pathways. Epigenetic regulations, including histone modification and DNA methylation play a key role in the photoperiod pathway. This study found that the loss-of-function mutant of OsSFL1 delayed flowering by almost two weeks under short day conditions, but not under long-day conditions. Further studies revealed that OsSFL1 affects the rhythmic expression pattern of the key photoperiodic flowering genes Hd1 (Heading date 1) and Hd3a (Heading date 3a) and forms a complex with HDAC complex, OsSAP18 and OsHDAC2, to dynamically regulate histone acetylation levels. This study first time discovered that the histone deacetylation complex member OsSFL1 mediated histone deacetylation regulate flowering time in rice, which provides important insights for epigenetic regulation of basic research and breeding application in the regulation of rice flowering at different stages.
DOI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pbi.13235