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The Rice YL4 Gene Encoding a Ribosome Maturation Domain Protein Is Essential for Chloroplast Development
by
,
Yunguang Sun
1,†
,
Yanxia Liu
1,†,
Youze Zhang
1,
Dongzhi Lin
1,2,
Xiaobiao Pan
3,* and
Yanjun Dong
1,2,* 1
College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
2
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Sciences, Shanghai 200234, China
3
Crop Institute, Taizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Linhai 317000, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Biology 2024, 13(8), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13080580 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 24 May 2024
/
Revised: 23 July 2024
/
Accepted: 25 July 2024
/
Published: 31 July 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mining Favorable Alleles for Crop Yield, Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance)
Simple Summary
CRM domain proteins play key roles in plant growth and chloroplast development. To explore the role of CRM domain protein in the chloroplast development of rice, we cloned a rice CRM domain protein gene, YL4, and then conducted a tissue-specific expression analysis, subcellular localization, and transcription analysis. The experimental results showed that YL4 was highly expressed in leaves and localized to the chloroplast, and its mutation affected chloroplast-related gene transcription levels and some agronomic traits. These results indicate that the YL4 gene is a pivotal regulatory factor in chloroplast development and rice growth.
Abstract
Chloroplast RNA splicing and ribosome maturation (CRM) domain proteins are a family of plant-specific proteins associated with RNA binding. In this study, we have conducted a detailed characterization of a novel rice CRM gene (LOC_Os04g39060) mutant, yl4, which showed yellow-green leaves at all the stages, had fewer tillers, and had a decreased plant height. Map-based cloning and CRISPR/Cas9 editing techniques all showed that YL4 encoded a CRM domain protein in rice. In addition, subcellular localization revealed that YL4 was in chloroplasts. YL4 transcripts were highly expressed in all leaves and undetectable in roots and stems, and the mutation of YL4 affected the transcription of chloroplast-development-related genes. This study indicated that YL4 is essential for chloroplast development and affects some agronomic traits.
