Chinese scientists reveal a new mechanism for breaking through the bottleneck of rice yield

Number of ears 、 Number of grains per panicle 、 Grain weight , These are the three core factors that determine rice yield . However , These traits usually restrict each other , Excellent traits are often difficult to have both . Chinese scientists have revealed the molecular mechanism of mutual restriction between panicle weight and panicle number in rice , Thus, it provides a feasible method to break this restrictive relationship , It provides new genetic resources and research ideas for breaking through the bottleneck of rice yield .

The research was completed by Li Jiayang team of Institute of genetics and developmental biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Related achievements 21 International Academic Journals 《 natural · Biotechnology 》 publish .

“ There is often a trade-off effect between different agronomic traits , Such as high yield and disease resistance of plants 、 Negative correlation between high yield and high quality , Making it difficult for these excellent traits to have both .” The first author of the article 、 Song Xiaoguang, an associate researcher at the Institute of genetic development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said , Rice is one of the most important staple crops , Break the negative correlation between yield traits , For breaking through the bottleneck of rice yield 、 Maintaining food security is of great significance .

IPA1 It is a major gene for rice plant type regulation identified by Li Jiayang's team , It can be used to regulate various growth and development processes of rice , Disease resistance and environmental adaptability also play an important regulatory role , It has been widely used in the cultivation of excellent rice varieties . but IPA1 Is a typical pleiotropic gene , While increasing the panicle, the number of tillers will be reduced , It limits its potential to increase rice yield .

In this latest study , The team created a lot of IPA1 The cis regulatory region is tiled with deleted gene editing materials , The editing materials that can improve the weight and number of ears at the same time IPA1-Pro10, The editing material also has the characteristics of plant height change 、 The phenotype of stout stems and roots . Through the yield measurement and identification of field plot ,IPA1-Pro10 Compared with the control variety Zhonghua 11 Can increase production compared to 15.9%. The study further clarified IPA1 Molecular mechanism of cis regulatory region regulating spike phenotype .

“ This study successfully realized the elimination of the negative correlation among the key factors of rice yield , It provides an effective strategy for breaking the bottleneck of rice yield by creating new genetic resources .” Article correspondent 、 Yu Hong, a researcher at the Institute of genetic development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said , In the future, the systematic function of cis regulatory regions of crop core genes will be excavated , It is expected to provide new molecular mechanisms and genetic resources to break through the bottleneck of existing crop breeding .