No abstract

In plants, the orange (Or) gene plays roles in regulating carotenoid biosynthesis and responses to environmental stress. The present study investigated whether the expression of rice Or (OsOr) gene could enhance rice tolerance to heat stress conditions. The OsOr gene was cloned and constructed with OsOr or OsOr-R115H (leading to Arg to His substitution at position 115 on the OsOr protein), and transformed into rice plants. The chlorophyll contents and proline contents of transgenic lines were significantly higher than those of non-transgenic (NT) plants under heat stress conditions. However, we found that the levels of electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde in transgenic lines were significantly reduced compared to NT plants under heat stress conditions. In addition, the levels of expression of four genes related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes (OsAPX2, OsCATA, OsCATB, OsSOD-Cu/Zn) and five genes (OsLEA3, OsDREB2A, OsDREB1A, OsP5CS, SNAC1) responded to abiotic stress was showed significantly higher in the transgenic lines than NT plants under heat stress conditions. Therefore, OsOr-R115H could be exploited as a promising strategy for developing new rice cultivars with improved heat stress tolerance.

Nitrate is an important nutrient and signaling molecule in plants that modulates the expression of many genes and regulates plant growth. In this study, we cover the research status of transcription factors related to the control of gene expression by nitrate signaling in higher plants. Nitrate reductase is a key enzyme in nitrogen assimilation, as it catalyzes the nitrate-to-nitrite reduction process in plants. A variety of factors, including nitrate, light, metabolites, phytohormones, low temperature, and drought, modulate the expression levels of nitrate reductase genes and nitrate reductase activity, which is consistent with the physiological role if. Recently, several transcription factors controlling the expression of nitrate reductase genes have been identified in higher plants. NODULE-INCEPTION-Like Proteins (NLPs) are transcription factors responsible for the nitrate-inducible expression of nitrate reductase genes. Since NLPs also control the nitrate-inducible expression of genes encoding the nitrate transporter, nitrite transporter, and nitrite reductase, the expression levels of nitrate reduction pathway-associated genes are coordinately modulated by NLPs in response to nitrate. Understanding the function of nitrate in plants will be useful to create crops with low nitrogen use.

We generated an orange-colored (OC) rice callus line by targeted mutagenesis of the orange gene (OsOr) using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The OC line accumulated more lutein, β-carotene, and two β-carotene isomers compared to the WT callus line. We also analyzed the expression levels of carotenoid biosynthesis genes by qRT-PCR. Among the genes encoding carotenoid metabolic pathway enzymes, the number of transcripts of the PSY2, PSY3, PDS, ZDS and β-LCY genes were higher in the OC line than in the WT line. In contrast, transcription of the ε-LCY gene was downregulated in the OC line compared to the WT line. In addition, we detected increases in the transcript levels of two genes involved in carotenoid oxidation in the OC lines. The developed OC lines also showed increased tolerance to salt stress. Collectively, these findings indicate that targeted mutagenesis of the OsOr gene via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing results in β-carotene accumulation in rice calli. Accordingly, we believe that this type of genome-editing technology could represent an effective alternative approach for enhancing the β-carotene content of plants.

To produce the miraculin protein in suspension cultures, rice (Oryza sativa L.) was transformed with Agrobacterium tumefacience EHA105 containing the miraculin AB512278 gene. The cell suspension cultures were established using cell lines selected from transgenic rice callus. The integration of the miraculin gene into the rice chromosome was confirmed using genomic PCR analysis. In addition, RT-PCR analysis indicated that the miraculin gene is expressed in the selected suspension cell lines. Thus, the recombinant miraculin was expressed in the transgenic suspension cell line, HK-2. Therefore, we have successfully developed a HK-2 line that produces miraculin. These results demonstrate that transformed cell suspension cultures can be used to produce a taste-modifying protein such as miraculin.