Open Access

ARTICLE

Constitutive Activation OsbZIP62 Improves Plant Height and Yield through Regulating the Expression of Agronomic Traits Related Genes in Rice

Shiqin Yang^1,2,#, Tao Jiang^3,#, Peilin Shen¹, Shengjie Ren³, Zhun Gu¹, Fangjun Feng², Yunpeng Peng^2,4, Wei Wang⁵, Kai Xu^2,*

1 Suzhou Chien-Shiung Institute of Technology, Suzhou, 215411, China
2 Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, 201106, China
3 College of Ocean and Bioengineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224051, China
4 College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China
5 School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, China

* Corresponding Author: Kai Xu. Email:
# These two authors contributed equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: High-Yield Rice Physiology & Genetics)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2022, 91(8), 1671-1686. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.018996

Received 16 September 2021; Accepted 17 December 2021; Issue published 14 April 2022

Abstract

Plant height is an important morphological trait that affects crop yield. Several genes related to plant height and yield have been reported in rice (Oryza sativa L.), however, the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of these traits is still not completely understood. VP64 is widely used as a transcriptional activator to investigate the biological function of genes encoding transcription factors. Here, we identified a novel bZIP transcription factor OsbZIP62 that is involved in modulating agronomic traits in rice. Overexpression of OsbZIP62-VP64 (OsbZIP62V) significantly increases the plant height and yield per plant in rice. RNA-seq analysis showed that some plant height and panicle development related genes (i.e., OsEATB, OsDSS1 and OsGA3ox2) were up-regulated in OsbZIP62V overexpressing rice plants. Besides, OsbZIP62 could also bind to the promoters of several putative target genes. These results suggested that OsbZIP62 plays a role as transcriptional regulator in regulating the expression of genes associated with agronomic traits, and OsbZIP62 fused with VP64 would be useful in crop genetic modification with improved plant architecture and yield.

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Keywords

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