An orchestrated ethylene-gibberellin signaling cascade contributes to mesocotyl elongation and emergence of rice direct seeding

A mechanized direct seeding of rice with less labor and water usage,has been widely adopted.However,this approach requires varieties that exhibit uniform seedling emergence.Mesocotyl elongation(ME)offers the main drive of fast emergence of rice seedlings from soils;nevertheless,its genetic basis remains unknown.Here,we identify a major rice quantitative trait locus Mesocotyl Elongation1(qME1),an allele of the Green Revolution gene Semi-Dwarf1(SD1),encoding GA20-oxidase for gibberellin(GA)biosynthesis.ME1 expression is strongly induced by soil depth and ethylene.When rice grains are direct-seeded in soils,the ethylene core signaling factor OsEIL1 directly promotes ME1 transcription,accelerating bioactive GA biosynthesis.The GAs further degrade the DELLA protein SLENDER RICE 1(SLR1),alleviating its inhibition of rice PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR-LIKE13(OsPIL13)to activate the downstream expansion gene OsEXPA4 and ultimately promote rice seedling ME and emergence.The ancient traits of long mesocotyl and strong emergence ability in wild rice and landrace were gradually lost in company with the Green Revolution dwarf breeding process,and an elite ME1-R allele(D349H)is found in some modern Geng varieties(long mesocotyl lengths)in northern China,which can be used in the direct seeding and dwarf breeding of Geng varieties.Furthermore,the ectopic and high expression of ME1 driven by mesocotyl-specific promoters resulted in rice plants that could be direct-seeded without obvious plant architecture or yield penalties.Collectively,we reveal the molecular mechanism of rice ME,and provide useful information for breeding new Green Revolution varieties with long mesocotyl suitable for direct-seeding practice.

OsLESV and OsESV1 promote transitory and storage starch biosynthesis to determine rice grain quality and yield

Transitory starch is an important carbon source in leaves,and its biosynthesis and metabolism are closely related to grain quality and yield.The molecular mechanisms controlling leaf transitory starch biosynthesis and degradation and their effects on rice(Oryza sativa)quality and yield remain unclear.Here,we show that OsLESV and OsESV1,the rice orthologs of AtLESV and AtESV1,are associated with transitory starch biosynthesis in rice.The total starch and amylose contents in leaves and endosperms are significantly reduced,and the final grain quality and yield are compromised in oslesv and osesv1 single and oslesv esv1 double mutants.Furthermore,we found that OsLESV and OsESV1 bind to starch,and this binding depends on a highly conserved C-terminal tryptophan-rich region that acts as a starch-binding domain.Importantly,OsLESV and OsESV1 also interact with the key enzymes of starch biosynthesis,granule-bound starch synthase I(GBSSI),GBSSII,and pyruvate orthophosphote dikiase(PPDKB),to maintain their protein stability and activity.OsLESV and OsESV1 also facilitate the targeting of GBSSI and GBSSII from plastid stroma to starch granules.Overexpression of GBSSI,GBSSII,and PPDKB can partly rescue the phenotypic defects of the oslesv and osesv1 mutants.Thus,we demonstrate that OsLESV and OsESV1 play a key role in regulating the biosynthesis of both leaf transitory starch and endosperm storage starch in rice.These findings deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying transitory starch biosynthesis in rice leaves and reveal how the transitory starch metabolism affects rice grain quality and yield,providing useful information for the genetic improvement of rice grain quality and yield.

Phase-Dislocation-Mediated High-Dimensional Fractional Acoustic-Vortex Communication

With unlimited topological modes in mathematics,the fractional orbital angular momentum(FOAM)demonstrates the potential to infinitely increase the channel capacity in acoustic-vortex(AV)communications.However,the accuracy and stability of FOAM recognition are still limited by the nonorthogonality and poor anti-interference of fractional AV beams.The popular machine learning,widely used in optics based on large datasets of images,does not work in acoustics because of the huge engineering of the 2-dimensional point-by-point measurement.Here,we report a strategy of phase-dislocation-mediated high-dimensional fractional AV communication based on pair-FOAM multiplexing,circular sparse sampling,and machine learning.The unique phase dislocation corresponding to the topological charge provides important physical guidance to recognize FOAMs and reduce sampling points from theory to practice.A straightforward convolutional neural network considering turbulence and misalignment is further constructed to achieve the stable and accurate communication without involving experimental data.We experimentally present that the 32-point dual-ring sampling can realize the 10-bit information transmission in a limited topological charge scope from±0.6 to±2.4 with the FOAM resolution of 0.2,which greatly reduce the divergence in AV communications.The infinitely expanded channel capacity is further verified by the improved FOAM resolution of 0.025.Compared with other milestone works,our strategy reaches 3-fold OAM utilization,4-fold information level,and 5-fold OAM resolution.Because of the extra advantages of high dimension,high speed,and low divergence,this technology may shed light on the next-generation AV communication.

Superresolution structured illumination microscopy reconstruction algorithms:a review

Structured illumination microscopy(SIM)has become the standard for next-generation wide-field microscopy,offering ultrahigh imaging speed,superresolution,a large fiield-of-view,and long-term imaging.Over the past decade,SIM hardware and software have flourished,leading to successful applications in various biological questions.However,unlocking the full potential of SIM system hardware requires the development of advanced reconstruction algorithms.Here,we introduce the basic theory of two SIM algorithms,namely,optical sectioning SIM(OS-SIM)and superresolution SIM(SR-SIM),and summarize their implementation modalities.We then provide a brief overview of existing OS-SIM processing algorithms and review the development of SR-SIM reconstruction algorithms,focusing primarily on 2D-SIM,3D-SIM,and blind-SIM.To showcase the state-of-the-art development of SIM systems and assist users in selecting a commercial SIM system for a specific application,we compare the features of representative off-the-shelf SIM systems.Finally,we provide perspectives on the potential future developments of SIM.

OPAQUE3, encoding a transmembrane bZIP transcription factor, regulates endosperm storage protein and starch biosynthesis in rice

Starch and storage proteins are the main components of rice(Oryza sativa L.)grains.Despite their importance,the molecular regulatory mechanisms of storage protein and starch biosynthesis remain largely elusive.Here,we identified a rice opaque endosperm mutant,opaque3(o3),that overaccumulates 57-kDa proglutelins and has significantly lower protein and starch contents than the wild type.The o3 mutant also has abnormal protein body structures and compound starch grains in its endosperm cells.OPAQUE3(O3)encodes a transmembrane basic leucine zipper(bZIP)transcription factor(OsbZIP60)and is localized in the endoplasmic reticulum(ER)and the nucleus,but it is localized mostly in the nucleus under ER stress.We demonstrated that O3 could activate the expression of several starch synthesis-related genes(GBSSI,AGPL2,SBEI,and ISA2)and storage protein synthesis-related genes(OsGluA2,Prol14,and Glb1).O3 also plays an important role in protein processing and export in the ER by directly binding to the promoters and activating the expression of OsBIP1 and PDIL1-1,two major chaperones that assist with folding of immature secretory proteins in the ER of rice endosperm cells.High-temperature conditions aggravate ER stress and result in more abnormal grain development in o3 mutants.We also revealed that OsbZIP50 can assist O3 in response to ER stress,especially under high-temperature conditions.We thus demonstrate that O3 plays a central role in rice grain development by participating simultaneously in the regulation of storage protein and starch biosynthesis and the maintenance of ER homeostasis in endosperm cells.

CDE4 encodes a pentatricopeptide repeat protein involved in chloroplast RNA splicing and affects chloroplast development under low-temperature conditions in rice

Pentatricopeptide repeat(PPR)proteins play important roles in the post-transcriptional modification of organellar RNAs in plants.However,the function of most PPR proteins remains unknown.Here,we characterized the rice(Oryza sativa L.)chlorophyll deficient 4(cde4)mutant which exhibits an albino phenotype during early leaf development,with decreased chlorophyll contents and abnormal chloroplasts at low-temperature(20℃).Positional cloning revealed that CDE4 encodes a P-type PPR protein localized in chloroplasts.In the cde4 mutant,plastid-encoded polymerase(PEP)-dependent transcript levels were significantly reduced,but transcript levels of nuclear-encoded genes were increased compared to wild-type plants at 20℃.CDE4 directly binds to the transcripts of the chloroplast genes rpl2,ndhA,and ndhB.Intron splicing of these transcripts was defective in the cde4 mutant at 20℃,but was normal at 32℃.Moreover,CDE4 interacts with the guanylate kinase VIRESCENT 2(V2);overexpression of V2 enhanced CDE4 protein stability,thereby rescuing the cde4 phenotype at 20℃.Our results suggest that CDE4 participates in plastid RNA splicing and plays an important role in rice chloroplast development under lowtemperature conditions.

Alanine aminotransferase(OsAlaAT1)modulates nitrogen utilization,grain yield,and quality in rice

Widespread use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers has increased yields of many grains, including rice (Oryza sativa L.);however, fertilizers are costly for farmers and cause serious environmental problems, such as soil acidification and water eutrophication (Guo et al., 2010, 2021;Liu et al., 2021). Improving nitrogen use efficiency(NUE) in rice offers a practical way to enhance grain yield and alleviate the environmental problems caused by overuse of nitrogen fertilizer. Identifying and characterizing genes involved in NUE provides crucial information for this aim.