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Agronomy
Special Issues
Molecular Mechanism of Quality Formation in Rice
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Molecular Mechanism of Quality Formation in Rice

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2025) | Viewed by 2748

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yulong Ren

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: understanding the molecular and genetic bases of rice quality; intracellular trafficking of storage proteins and starch-related proteins in rice endosperm
Dr. Hui Dong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: plant molecular genetics; gene cloning and functional analysis; rice genetics and breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rice is one of the most consumed and in-demand cereal crops in the world, and a substantial yield increase helps to ease the issue of global food shortages. With the improvement of people’s living standards and rice trade worldwide, average per capita consumption is decreasing, while the demand for high-quality rice is increasing. Rice grain quality, including milling quality (MQ), appearance quality (AQ), eating and cooking quality (ECQ), nutritional quality (NQ) and safe quality, is critical for determining economic value in the marketplace and improving consumer satisfaction. Although key genes essential for rice quality formation, such as the Wx gene, have been functionally characterized in depth, progress in genetic improvement of rice quality is still slow. A major reason for this is the lack of understanding surrounding the complex molecular mechanism behind grain quality. A combination of classical map-based cloning, Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and multi-omics methods should be used to identify more genes involved in rice grain quality, which would greatly help to expand our understanding of the molecular basis of rice grain quality formation. In addition, gene editing has also been shown to improve rice quality. In this Special Issue, we are focusing on understanding to a greater degree the molecular mechanism of quality formation in rice. All types of manuscripts are encouraged.

Topics for the call for paper include but not restricted to:

  • GWAS and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis for rice grain quality using natural rice resources and genetic populations;
  • Identification of genes affecting rice grain quality, including storage substance synthesis and transport through forward and reverse genetics;
  • The application of gene editing in breeding high-quality rice;
  • New tools used to explore genes or understand the molecular mechanism of quality formation;
  • Super allele identification and utilization in grain quality breeding.

Prof. Dr. Yulong Ren
Dr. Hui Dong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • rice quality
  • milling quality
  • appearance quality
  • eating and cooking quality
  • nutritional quality
  • safety quality
  • map-based cloning
  • multi-omics genes
  • regulatory network
  • molecular mechanism

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5150 KiB  
Article
Effects of Nitrogen Application at Different Panicle Development Stages on the Panicle Structure and Grain Yield in Hybrid Indica Rice Cultivars
by Qiguang Zhang, Jie Sun, Longping Wang, Jun Chen, Jian Ke and Liquan Wu
Agronomy 2025, 15(3), 595; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15030595 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 255
Abstract
To increase the seed setting rate and yield of large-panicle rice varieties, one agronomic and breeding strategy is to increase the proportion of spikelets in the middle portion of the panicle as many of the lower spikelets fail to produce grains. Current nitrogen [...] Read more.
To increase the seed setting rate and yield of large-panicle rice varieties, one agronomic and breeding strategy is to increase the proportion of spikelets in the middle portion of the panicle as many of the lower spikelets fail to produce grains. Current nitrogen management during panicle development mainly focuses on fertilization at the emergence of the top fourth leaf, which increases the number of secondary branch spikelets on the lower part of the panicle. Two-year field experiments were conducted in 2021 and 2022 with two typical large-panicle hybrid indica rice cultivars, IIYM86 and JLY8612. Nitrogen was applied at the emergence of the top fifth (TL5), fourth (TL4), third (TL3), and second (TL2) leaves, with no nitrogen application as a control. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nitrogen application on the panicle structure, seed setting rate, and grain yield at different stages of panicle development. Nitrogen application at TL3 achieved the highest grain yield, followed by application at TL4, for both cultivars over the two years. TL3 did not significantly alter the number of spikelets per panicle but increased the proportion of spikelets located in the middle part of the panicle and reduced the proportions in the upper and lower parts compared to TL4. These effects were attributed to a significant increase in secondary branch spikelet differentiation in the middle part and a decrease in secondary branch spikelet differentiation in the upper and lower parts. Compared to TL4, TL3 significantly increased the seed setting rate by 9.46 and 9.48% and the grain yield by 6.86 and 8.92% in IIYM86 and JLY8612, respectively. In TL3, the significant increase in secondary branch spikelet differentiation in the middle part was primarily due to significantly reduced indole acetic acid (IAA) and an increased cytokinin/IAA ratio, which inhibited apical dominance. The significant decrease in secondary branch spikelet differentiation in the lower part of TL3 was mainly related to a significant increase in IAA and a reduction in the cytokinin/IAA ratio. Transcriptome analysis of young panicles confirmed these results, and differentially expressed genes between TL3 and TL4 were primarily enriched in plant hormone signal transduction related to IAA biosynthesis and degradation. These findings indicate that postponing nitrogen application until TL3 can improve the PTI and the seed setting rate by regulating hormonal balance, thereby optimizing nitrogen management during panicle development in large-panicle hybrid indica rice cultivars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanism of Quality Formation in Rice)
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15 pages, 3245 KiB  
Article
Effects of Salt Stress on Grain Quality and Starch Properties of High-Quality Rice Cultivars
by Ruilong Cui, Tianyang Zhou, Chenchen Shu, Kuanyu Zhu, Miao Ye, Weiyang Zhang, Hao Zhang, Lijun Liu, Zhiqin Wang, Junfei Gu and Jianchang Yang
Agronomy 2024, 14(3), 444; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030444 - 24 Feb 2024
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1943
Abstract
In recent days, there has been a noticeable surge in demand for high-quality rice. However, the influences of salinity on the quality and starch properties of high-quality rice remain unclear. Three high-quality rice cultivars (Nanjing 9108, Nanjing 5055, and Nanjing 46) were studied [...] Read more.
In recent days, there has been a noticeable surge in demand for high-quality rice. However, the influences of salinity on the quality and starch properties of high-quality rice remain unclear. Three high-quality rice cultivars (Nanjing 9108, Nanjing 5055, and Nanjing 46) were studied to investigate the responses of grain quality to salt stress. There were three treatments, including a control zero salt level (0 g·kg−1, CK), and two salt levels of 0.1 g·kg−1 (0.1% salt stress, T1) and 0.2 g·kg−1 (0.2% salt stress, T2). The study involved the assessment of the appearance, milling, cooking, and eating qualities of rice. We also conducted an analysis of pasting properties, an evaluation of starch thermal properties, and an examination of the fine structure of amylopectin. The findings suggest that as the level of salt stress increases, the yield of rice gradually declines, which is primarily due to a significant reduction in the total spikelet number and the ratio of filled grains. Compared with CK treatment, the appearance and milling quality of rice were significantly improved within the T1 treatment. In addition, the protein concentration and amylose concentration were significantly decreased, the gel consistency was significantly increased, and the cooking and eating qualities were improved. In terms of starch properties, the peak viscosity, breakdown value, infrared ratio (1022/995), and short-chain-length amylopectin ratio increased significantly, while the setback value, pasting temperature, gelatinization enthalpy, relative crystallinity, and infrared ratio (1045/1022) decreased significantly. When comparing T2 with CK, the appearance quality and cooking and eating quality had deteriorated, and the milling quality was improved. The changes in the structural and physicochemical properties of starch were opposite to those in the comparison between the T1 treatment and the CK group. Accordingly, we propose that moderate salt stress has the potential to enhance rice quality, even though there may be a slight decrease in yield. This indicates that it is feasible to cultivate high-quality rice in saline–alkali beach areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanism of Quality Formation in Rice)
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