Jianquan Li

Hier Rice Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 6   
Received: 21 Nov., 2024    Accepted: 22 Dec., 2024    Published: 31 Dec., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study mainly talks about a gene called GRA78 and how it affects the color of rice leaves. Cysteine is a very important amino acid and the precursor of many biological molecules. The study found that the GRA78 gene played a major role in the development of chloroplasts during the rice seedling period. Rice with GRA78 mutations will have white leaves at an early stage, but this phenomenon is only affected by temperature and has nothing to do with the light exposure time. Through the method of positional cloning, the researchers found the candidate gene LOC_Os01g59920 of GRA78. The protein it encodes is very similar to the CS26 protein in Arabidopsis. Complementation experiments further confirmed that the mutation of LOC_Os01g59920 is the cause of the albinism of the GRA78 mutant. GRA78 is expressed in all tissues of rice, and the protein it encodes is mainly in chloroplasts. Further analysis found that after the GRA78 mutation, the expression levels of four homologous genes of the OASTL family and five genes related to photosynthesis in rice were significantly reduced. This study summarizes the current understanding of the function of GRA78 and emphasizes its important role in cysteine synthesis and chloroplast development. It also provides new clues for understanding the regulatory mechanism of cysteine synthase genes in plants.

Cysteine synthase; GRA78; Rice leaf color; Chloroplast development; Gene regulation