One gene helps rice grains grow bigger and fill out fully
Li X, Xue M, Tao Y, Yao Y, Huang M
Crop Improvement
The rice on your dinner plate got there because of exactly this kind of grain-filling process, and tweaking a single gene like this could mean more food from the same amount of farmland.
Rice plants use a gene called TAL to help move sugar and starch into their grains as they ripen. When researchers gave rice plants extra copies of this gene, the grains grew bigger and packed in more starch, and the plants even flowered earlier. When they removed the gene instead, grains came out smaller, less full, and the whole plant produced a lot less rice.
Key Findings
TAL overexpression increased grain size, improved grain filling, boosted starch accumulation, and caused earlier flowering
CRISPR knockout and RNAi knockdown of TAL reduced grain weight, worsened grain filling, delayed flowering, and caused a significant yield penalty
TAL is a chloroplast-localized transaldolase enzyme regulated by the transcriptional repressor OsRA2, and it is preferentially expressed in the pericarp, aleurone layer, and vascular tissues involved in nutrient transport to grains
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists discovered a rice gene called TAL that controls how big grains grow and how well they fill with starch. Boosting the gene's activity produced larger, fuller grains and even earlier flowering, while knocking it out shrank grains and cut yields.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
TAL, encoding a transaldolase, increases grain size and promotes grain filling in rice.
Grain size and grain filling are critical determinants of rice yield and grain quality. Although transaldolase (TAL) is a key enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway and is known to be essential fo...
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