ABA-mediated regulation of rice grain quality and seed dormancy via the NF-YB1-SLRL2-bHLH144 Module.

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in promoting plant stress resistance and seed dormancy. However, how ABA regulates rice quality remains unclear. This study identifies a key transcription factor SLR1-like2 (SLRL2), which mediates the ABA-regulated amylose content (AC) of rice. Mechanistically, SLRL2 interacts with NF-YB1 to co-regulate Wx, a determinant of AC and rice quality. In contrast to SLR1, SLRL2 is ABA inducible but insensitive to GA. In addition, SLRL2 exhibits DNA-binding activity and directly regulates the expression of Wx, bHLH144 and MFT2. SLRL2 competes with NF-YC12 for interaction with NF-YB1. NF-YB1 also directly represses SLRL2 transcription. Genetic validation supports that SLRL2 functions downstream of NF-YB1 and bHLH144 in regulating rice AC. Thus, an NF-YB1-SLRL2-bHLH144 regulatory module is successfully revealed. Furthermore, SLRL2 regulates rice dormancy by modulating the expression of MFT2. In conclusion, this study revealed an ABA-responsive regulatory cascade that functions in both rice quality and seed dormancy.

Roles and evolution of four LEAFY homologs in floral patterning and leaf development in woodland strawberry.

The plant-specific transcription factor LEAFY (LFY), generally maintained as a single-copy gene in most angiosperm species, plays critical roles in flower development. The woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) possesses four LFY homologs in the genome; however, their respective functions and evolution remain unknown. Here, we identified and validated that mutations in one of the four LFY homologs, FveLFYa, cause homeotic conversion of floral organs and reiterative outgrowth of ectopic flowers. In contrast to FveLFYa, FveLFYb/c/d appear dispensable under normal growth conditions, as fvelfyc mutants are indistinguishable from wild type and FveLFYb and FveLFYd are barely expressed. Transgenic analysis and yeast one-hybrid assay showed that FveLFYa and FveLFYb, but not FveLFYc and FveLFYd, are functionally conserved with AtLFY in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Unexpectedly, LFY-binding site prediction and yeast one-hybrid assay revealed that the transcriptional links between LFY and the APETALA1 (AP1) promoter/the large AGAMOUS (AG) intron are missing in F. vesca, which is due to the loss of LFY-binding sites. The data indicate that mutations in cis-regulatory elements could contribute to LFY evolution. Moreover, we showed that FveLFYa is involved in leaf development, as approximately 30% of mature leaves have smaller or fewer leaflets in fvelfya. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that LFY homologs in Fragaria species may arise from recent duplication events in their common ancestor and are undergoing convergent gene loss. Together, these results provide insight into the role of LFY in flower and leaf development in strawberry and have important implications for the evolution of LFY.

Factor of DNA methylation 1 affects woodland strawberry plant stature and organ size via DNA methylation.

RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) is an epigenetic process that directs silencing to specific genomic regions and loci. The biological functions of RdDM are not well studied in horticultural plants. Here, we isolated the ethyl methane-sulfonate-induced mutant reduced organ size (ros) producing small leaves, flowers, and fruits in woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) due to reduced cell numbers compared with that in the wild-type (WT). The candidate mutation causes a premature stop codon in FvH4_6g28780, which shares high similarity to Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Factor of DNA Methylation1 (FDM1) encoding an RdDM pathway component and was named FveFDM1. Consistently, the fvefdm1CR mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9 also produced smaller organs. Overexpressing FveFDM1 in an Arabidopsis fdm1-1 fdm2-1 double mutant restored DNA methylation at the RdDM target loci. FveFDM1 acts in a protein complex with its homolog Involved in De Novo 2 (FveIDN2). Furthermore, whole-genome bisulfite sequencing revealed that DNA methylation, especially in the CHH context, was remarkably reduced throughout the genome in fvefdm1. Common and specific differentially expressed genes were identified in different tissues of fvefdm1 compared to in WT tissues. DNA methylation and expression levels of several gibberellic acid (GA) biosynthesis and cell cycle genes were validated. Moreover, the contents of GA and auxin were substantially reduced in the young leaves of fvefdm1 compared to in the WT. However, exogenous application of GA and auxin could not recover the organ size of fvefdm1. In addition, expression levels of FveFDM1, FveIDN2, Nuclear RNA Polymerase D1 (FveNRPD1), Domains Rearranged Methylase 2 (FveDRM2), and cell cycle genes were greatly induced by GA treatment. Overall, our work demonstrated the critical roles of FveFDM1 in plant growth and development via RdDM-mediated DNA methylation in horticultural crops.

Conserved and novel roles of miR164-CUC2 regulatory module in specifying leaf and floral organ morphology in strawberry.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a kind of short noncoding RNA (20-24 nt), playing versatile roles in plant growth and development. Strawberry generates leaves and flowers with unique features. However, few miRNAs have been functionally characterised in strawberry, especially for their developmental regulation. Here, we identified one ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutant, deeply serrated (des), in the woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca that has wrinkled leaves with deeper serrations, serrated petals and deformed carpels. The causative mutation occurs in the 19th nucleotide of the FvemiR164a mature sequence. Overexpressing FveMIR164A rescued the phenotypes of des/fvemir164a except the petal serrations. Furthermore, we identified two allelic mutants of FveCUC2a, one target of FvemiR164a, which developed leaves with smooth margins and fused leaflets. Phenotypes of the double mutant fvemir164a fvecuc2a indicated that the two genes act linearly in leaf and carpel development, but synergistically in the development of other floral organs and inflorescence architecture. This work demonstrates the conserved and novel roles of the miR164-CUC2 module in leaf and flower development in different plant species, and reveals that the 19th nucleotide of FvemiR164a is important for its processing.