Artificial selection of the Green Revolution gene Semidwarf 1 is implicated in upland rice breeding

Semidwarf breeding has boosted crop production and is a well-known outcome from the first Green Revolution. The Green Revolution gene Semidwarf 1(SD1), which modulates gibberellic acid(GA) biosynthesis, plays a principal role in determining rice plant height. Mutations in SD1 reduce rice plant height and promote lodging resistance and fertilizer tolerance to increase grain production. The plant height mediated by SD1 also favors grain yield under certain conditions. However, it is not yet known whether the function of SD1 in upland rice promotes adaptation and grain production. In this study, the plant height and grain yield of irrigated and upland rice were comparatively analyzed under paddy and dryland conditions. In response to dryland environments, rice requires a reduction in plant height to cope with water deficits. Upland rice accessions had greater plant heights than their irrigated counterparts under both paddy and dryland conditions, and appropriately reducing plant height could improve adaptability to dryland environments and maintain high grain yield formation. Moreover, upland rice cultivars with thicker stem diameters had stronger lodging resistance, which addresses the lodging problem. Knockout of SD1 in the upland rice cultivar IRAT104 reduced the plant height and grain yield, demonstrating that the adjustment of plant height mediated by SD1 could increase grain production in dryland fields. In addition, an SD1 genetic diversity analysis verified that haplotype variation causes phenotypic variation in plant height. During the breeding history of rice, SD1 allelic mutations were selected from landraces to improve the grain yield of irrigated rice cultivars, and this selection was accompanied by a reduction in plant height. Thus, five known mutant alleles were analyzed to verify that functional SD1 is required for upland rice production. All these results suggest that SD1 might have undergone artificial positive selection in upland rice, which provides further insights concerning greater plant height in upland rice breeding.

Mapping of dwarfing gene Rht14 in durum wheat and its effect on seedling vigor, internode length and plant height

Short coleoptiles associated with GA-insensitive Rht-1 alleles in wheat reduces yield due to poor seedling establishment under dry, or stubble-retained conditions. Hence there is a need for alternative dwarfing genes for wheat improvement programs. GA-sensitive dwarfing gene Rht14 confers semidwarf stature in wheat while retaining longer coleoptiles and early seedling vigor. Two RIL populations were used to identify the map position of Rht14 and to estimate its effect on plant height, coleoptile length, seedling shoot length,spike length and internode length. Rht14 on chromosome 6 A was mapped in the genomic region 383–422 Mbp flanked by GA2oxA9 and wmc753 in a Bijaga Yellow/Castelporziano RIL population. Recombination events between Rht14 and GA2oxA9 in the RIL population indicated that Rht14 might not be allelic to GA2oxA9. The conserved DNA sequence of GA2oxA9 and its flanking region in Castelporziano also suggested that the point of mutation responsible for the Rht14 allele must be a few Mbp away from GA2oxA9. The dwarfing effects of Rht14 on plant height, internode length and seedling vigor were compared with those of Rht-B1 b in an HI 8498/Castelporziano RIL population. Both genes significantly reduced plant height and internode length. Rht-B1 b conferred a significant reduction in coleoptile length and seedling shoot length, whereas Rht14 reduced plant height, but not coleoptile and seedling shoot length. Therefore, Rht14 can be a used as an alternative to Rht-B1 b for development of cultivars suitable for deeper sowing in dry environments and in conditions of conservation agriculture where crop residues are retained.

Chromosome location of semidwarf gene sd-t and sd-n in indica rice

Great achievements have been madein breeding of semidwarf varieties(indica) since 1960s. Resultsshowed that the dwarf traits widelyused .at present were controlled by thesame recessive major gene, sd-1,thus we faced the potential danger oflosing genetic diversity. The low yield

Molecular mapping of two semidwarf genes in an indica rice variety Aitaiyin3(Oryza sativa L.)

Genetic analysis established that Aitaiyin3,a dwarf rice variety derived from a semidwarf cultivar Taiyin1,carries two recessive semidwarf genes.By using simple sequence repeat(SSR)markers,we mapped the two semidwarf genes,sd-1 and sd-t2 on chromosomes 1 and 4,respectively.Sd-t2 was thus named because the semidrawf gene sd-t has already been identified from Aitaiyin 2 whose origin could be traced back to Taiyin1.The result of the molecular mapping of sd-1 gene revealed it is linked to four SSR markers found on chromosome 1.These markers are:RM297,RM302,RM212,and OSR3 spaced at 4.7 cM,0 cM,0.8cM and 0 cM,respectively.Sd-t2 was found to be located on chromosome 4 using five SSR markers:two markers,SSR332 and RM1305 located proximal to sd-t2 are spaced 11.6 cM,3.8 cM,respectively,while the three distally located primers,RM5633,RM307,and RM401 are separated by distances of 0.4 cM,0.0 cM,and 0.4 cM,respectively.