Peng-Fei Liao, Jie-Xiu Ouyang, Jian-Jun Zhang, Lan Yang, Xin Wang, Xiao-Jue Peng, Dong Wang, You-Lin Zhu, Shao-Bo Li
Author Information
Peng-Fei Liao: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
Jie-Xiu Ouyang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
Jian-Jun Zhang: College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
Lan Yang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
Xin Wang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
Xiao-Jue Peng: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
Dong Wang: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China.
You-Lin Zhu: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China. ylzhu1999@aliyun.com.
Shao-Bo Li: Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Gene Engineering in Jiangxi Province, School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China. lishaobo@ncu.edu.cn. ORCID
KEY MESSAGE: We reported that knockdown of OsDCL3b decreased grain yield but increased grain quality in rice, which is helpful for molecular breeding in crops. Multiple DICER-LIKE (DCL) genes usually exist and show diverse biochemical and phenotypic functions in land plants. In rice, the biochemical function of OsDCL3b is known to process 24-nucleotide panicle phased small RNAs, however, its phenotypic functions are unclear. Here we reported that knockdown of OsDCL3b led to reduced pollen fertility, seed setting rate, and decreased grain yield but increased grain quality in rice. To reveal the molecular mechanism of the above phenomena, extracted RNAs from rice panicles of the wild type (WT) and OsDCL3b-RNAi line S6-1 were analyzed by deep sequencing. It showed that knockdown of OsDCL3b affected the biogenesis of both 21- and 24-nucleotide small RNAs including miRNAs and phased small RNAs. Using RNA-seq, 644 up- and 530 down-regulated mRNA genes were identified in panicles of line S6-1, and 550 and 273 differentially spliced genes with various alternative splicing (AS) events were observed in panicles of line S6-1 and WT, respectively, suggesting that OsDCL3b involved in influencing the transcript levels of mRNA genes and the AS events in rice panicles. Thus, our results show that knockdown of OsDCL3b will affect the biogenesis of small RNAs, which is involved in regulating the transcription of mRNA genes, and consequently influence the grain yield and quality in rice.
