Regain flood adaptation in rice through a 14-3-3 protein OsGF14h
Jian Sun, Guangchen Zhang, Zhibo Cui, Ximan Kong, Xiaoyu Yu, Rui Gui, Yuqing Han, Zhuan Li, Hong Lang, Yuchen Hua, Xuemin Zhang, Quan Xu, Liang Tang, Zhengjin Xu, Dianrong Ma, Wenfu Chen
Abstract
Contemporary climatic stress seriously affects rice production. Unfortunately, long-term domestication and improvement modified the phytohormones network to achieve the production needs of cultivated rice, thus leading to a decrease in adaptation. Here, we identify a 14-3-3 protein-coding gene OsGF14h in weedy rice that confers anaerobic germination and anaerobic seedling development tolerance. OsGF14h acts as a signal switch to balance ABA signaling and GA biosynthesis by interacting with the transcription factors OsHOX3 and OsVP1, thereby boosting the seeding rate from 13.5% to 60.5% for anaerobic sensitive variety under flooded direct-seeded conditions. Meanwhile, OsGF14h co-inheritance with the Rc (red pericarp gene) promotes divergence between temperate japonica cultivated rice and temperate japonica weedy rice through artificial and natural selection. Our study retrieves a superior allele that has been lost during modern japonica rice improvement and provides a fine-tuning tool to improve flood adaptation for elite rice varieties.