Overexpressing OsNF-YB12 elevated the content of jasmonic acid and impaired drought tolerance in rice.

Nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) is an evolutionarily conserved heterotrimeric transcription factor in eukaryotes. In a previous study, OsNF-YB12 was confirmed to be associated with drought tolerance using the Ecotilling method. In this study, real-time quantitative RT-PCR revealed that OsNF-YB12 was induced by various abiotic stresses and phytohormones, with expression levels differing between leaves and roots.

Autotetraploidy of rice does not potentiate the tolerance to drought stress in the seedling stage.

Polyploid is considered an advantage that has evolved to be more environmentally adaptable than its diploid. To understand if doubled chromosome of diploid rice can improve drought tolerance, we evaluated the diploid (2X) and autotetraploid (4X) plants of three indica and three japonica varieties. Drought stress in the plastic bucket of four-leaf stage revealed that the drought tolerance of 4X plants was lower than that of its diploid donor plants.

Structure-based prediction of protein-protein interaction network in rice.

Comprehensive protein-protein interaction (PPI) maps are critical for understanding the functional organization of the proteome, but challenging to produce experimentally. Here, we developed a computational method for predicting PPIs based on protein docking. Evaluation of performance on benchmark sets demonstrated the ability of the docking-based method to accurately identify PPIs using predicted protein structures.

Coordination of growth and drought responses by GA-ABA signaling in rice.

The drought caused by global warming seriously affects the crop growth and agricultural production. Plants have evolved distinct strategies to cope with the drought environment. Under drought stress, energy and resources should be diverted from growth toward stress management.

Natural variation of Alfin-like family affects seed size and drought tolerance in rice.

The Alfin-like (AL) family is a group of small plant-specific transcriptional factors involved in abiotic stresses in dicotyledon. In an early study, we found an AL gene in rice that was associated with grain yield under drought stress. However, little information is known about the AL family in rice.

Overexpressing in Rice Increases Plant Defense to Abiotic Stress and Bacterial Leaf Blight.

Mosses are one of the earliest diverging land plants that adapted to living on land. The BURP domain-containing proteins (BURP proteins) are plant-specific proteins that appeared when plants shifted from aquatic environments to land. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the BURP domain of higher plants is originated from lower land plants and divergent because of motif conversion.

Overexpression of OsHMGB707, a High Mobility Group Protein, Enhances Rice Drought Tolerance by Promoting Stress-Related Gene Expression.

Drought stress adversely affects crop growth and productivity worldwide. In response, plants have evolved several strategies in which numerous genes are induced to counter stress. High mobility group (HMG) proteins are the second most abundant family of chromosomal proteins.

An APETALA2/ethylene responsive factor, OsEBP89 knockout enhances adaptation to direct-seeding on wet land and tolerance to drought stress in rice.

Water stress is the most important adverse factor limiting rice production. Too much water leads to flood and too little leads to drought. Floods and droughts can severely damage crop at different times of the rice life cycle.

Temporal responses of conserved miRNAs to drought and their associations with drought tolerance and productivity in rice.

Background: Plant miRNAs play crucial roles in responses to drought and developmental processes. It is essential to understand the association of miRNAs with drought-tolerance (DT), as well as their impacts on growth, development, and reproduction (GDP). This will facilitate our utilization of rice miRNAs in breeding.

A novel rice grain size gene OsSNB was identified by genome-wide association study in natural population.

Increasing agricultural productivity is one of the most important goals of plant science research and imperative to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple crops worldwide.

Drought stress modulates diurnal oscillations of circadian clock and drought-responsive genes in Oryza sativa L.

Endogenous circadian rhythms play a key role in regulating plant growth and development, and in allowing plants to respond and adapt to changing environments. To understand how drought regulates upland rice(Oryza sativa L.) IRAT109, we examined the expression levels of circadian clock and drought-responsive genes through real-time PCR.

Comparative Analysis of Expression Profiles of Panicle Development among Tolerant and Sensitive Rice in Response to Drought Stress.

Water deficit caused a serious threat to crops, especially panicle development at reproductive growth phase. We investigated grain yield components and gene expression profiles of panicle among tolerant and sensitive rice in response to drought stress. Panicle morphologies exhibited that secondary branches per panicle were more severely affected as compared to primary branches per panicle.

A novel gene OsAHL1 improves both drought avoidance and drought tolerance in rice.

A novel gene, OsAHL1, containing an AT-hook motif and a PPC domain was identified through genome-wide profiling and analysis of mRNAs by comparing the microarray of drought-challenged versus normally watered rice. The results indicated OsAHL1 has both drought avoidance and drought tolerance that could greatly improve drought resistance of the rice plant. Overexpression of OsAHL1 enhanced multiple stress tolerances in rice plants during both seedling and panicle development stages.

Identification of gene modules associated with drought response in rice by network-based analysis.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie plant responses to drought stress is challenging due to the complex interplay of numerous different genes. Here, we used network-based gene clustering to uncover the relationships between drought-responsive genes from large microarray datasets. We identified 2,607 rice genes that showed significant changes in gene expression under drought stress; 1,392 genes were highly intercorrelated to form 15 gene modules.

Identification of rice transcription factors associated with drought tolerance using the Ecotilling method.

The drought tolerance (DT) of plants is a complex quantitative trait. Under natural and artificial selection, drought tolerance represents the crop survival ability and production capacity under drought conditions (Luo, 2010). To understand the regulation mechanism of varied drought tolerance among rice genotypes, 95 diverse rice landraces or varieties were evaluated within a field screen facility based on the 'line-source soil moisture gradient', and their resistance varied from extremely resistant to sensitive.

Expression analysis of a novel pyridoxal kinase messenger RNA splice variant, PKL, in oil rape suffering abiotic stress and phytohormones.

Pyridoxal kinase is key enzyme for the biosynthesis of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, the biologically active form of vitamin B6, in the salvage pathway. A pyridoxal kinase gene, BnPKL (GenBank accession No. DQ463962), was isolated from oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.

Isolation of a novel lipase gene from Serratia liquefaciens S33 DB-1, functional expression in Pichia pastoris and its properties.

A new lipase gene designated as SlLipA was isolated from Serratia liquefaciens S33 DB-1 by the genomic-walking method. The cloned gene contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,845 bp encoding 615 amino acids with a conserved GXSXG motif. Genome sequence analysis showed that an aldo/keto reductase gene closed to the SlLipA gene.

Distributional gradient of amino acid repeats in plant proteins.

A computer-based analysis was conducted to assess the characteristics of amino acid repeats in Arabidopsis and rice. Our analysis showed a negative gradient in amino acid repeat distribution along the direction of translation in plants. Repeat occurrences are obviously associated with position in plant proteins but are not consistent with the corresponding amino acid contents.

Cloning and expression analysis of a water stress-induced gene from Brassica oleracea.

Plant growth and productivity are greatly affected by water stress, such as drought and salinity. Here we report on the cloning and expression analysis of a water stress-induced gene from Brassica oleracea (designated as BoWS, GenBank accession number AY571333) by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full-length cDNA of BoWS consisted of 594 bp and contained a 285 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 95-amino-acid protein.

Preference of simple sequence repeats in coding and non-coding regions of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Motivation: Simple sequence repeats or microsatellites have been found abundantly in many genomes. However, the significance of distribution preference has not been completely understood. Completion of the Arabidopsis genome sequencing allows us to better understand and characterize microsatellites.