*Article* **Five Rice Seed-Specific** *NF-YC* **Genes Redundantly Regulate Grain Quality and Seed Germination via Interfering Gibberellin Pathway**

**Huayu Xu 1,†, Shufan Li 1,†, Bello Babatunde Kazeem <sup>1</sup> , Abolore Adijat Ajadi <sup>1</sup> , Jinjin Luo <sup>1</sup> , Man Yin <sup>1</sup> , Xinyong Liu <sup>1</sup> , Lijuan Chen <sup>1</sup> , Jiezheng Ying <sup>1</sup> , Xiaohong Tong <sup>1</sup> , Yifeng Wang <sup>1</sup> , Baixiao Niu <sup>2</sup> , Chen Chen <sup>2</sup> , Xiaoshan Zeng 3,\* and Jian Zhang 1,\***


**Abstract:** NF-YCs are important transcription factors with diverse functions in the plant kingdoms including seed development. *NF-YC8*, *9*, *10*, *11* and *12* are close homologs with similar seed-specific expression patterns. Despite the fact that some of the *NF-YCs* are functionally known; their biological roles have not been systematically explored yet, given the potential functional redundancy. In this study, we generated pentuple mutant *pnfyc* of *NF-YC8-12* and revealed their functions in the regulation of grain quality and seed germination. *pnfyc* grains displayed significantly more chalkiness with abnormal starch granule packaging. *pnfyc* seed germination and post-germination growth are much slower than the wild-type NIP, largely owing to the GA-deficiency as exogenous GA was able to fully recover the germination phenotype. The RNA-seq experiment identified a total of 469 differentially expressed genes, and several GA-, ABA- and grain quality control-related genes might be transcriptionally regulated by the five NF-YCs, as revealed by qRT-PCR analysis. The results demonstrated the redundant functions of *NF-YC8-12* in regulating GA pathways that underpin rice grain quality and seed germination, and shed a novel light on the functions of the seed-specific *NF-YCs*.

**Keywords:** rice (*Oryza sativa* L.); gibberellins; abscisic acid; NF-YCs
