Regulates Grain Quality, Gene Expressions, and Regulatory Networks of Starch and Storage Protein Metabolisms in Rice.

plays a vital role in regulating floret development and grain shape, but whether it regulates rice grain quality still remains largely unknown. Therefore, we used comprehensive molecular genetics, plant biotechnology, and functional omics approaches, including phenotyping, mapping-by-sequencing, target gene seed-specific RNAi, transgenic experiments, and transcriptomic profiling to answer this biological and molecular question. Here, we report the characterization of the 'Oat-like rice' mutant, with poor grain quality, including chalky endosperms, abnormal morphology and loose arrangement of starch granules, and lower starch content but higher protein content in grains. The poor grain quality of Oat-like rice was found to be caused by the mutated allele through mapping-by-sequencing analysis and transgenic experiments. OsMADS1 protein is highly expressed in florets and developing seeds. Both OsMADS1-eGFP and OsMADS1-eGFP fusion proteins are localized in the nucleus. Moreover, seed-specific RNAi of also caused decreased grain quality in transgenic lines, such as the Oat-like rice. Further transcriptomic profiling between Oat-like rice and Nipponbare grains revealed that regulates gene expressions and regulatory networks of starch and storage protein metabolisms in rice grains, hereafter regulating rice quality. In conclusion, our results not only reveal the crucial role and preliminary mechanism of in regulating rice grain quality but also highlight the application potentials of and the target gene seed-specific RNAi system in improving rice grain quality by molecular breeding.