Spatiotemporal Resolved Leaf Angle Establishment Improves Rice Grain Yield via Controlling Population Density

Rongna Wang; Chang Liu; Qinzhong Li; Zhina Chen; Shiyong Sun; Xuelu Wang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101489

Spatiotemporal Resolved Leaf Angle Establishment Improves Rice Grain Yield via Controlling Population Density

iScience. 2020 Aug 21;23(9):101489. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101489. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Rongna Wang¹, Chang Liu¹, Qinzhong Li², Zhina Chen², Shiyong Sun³, Xuelu Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
² National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. Electronic address: sunshiyong@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. Electronic address: xueluw@henu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Leaf angle is mainly determined by the lamina joint (LJ) and contributes to ideal crop architecture for high yield. Here, we dissected five successive stages with distinct cytological features of LJs spanning organogenesis to leaf angle formation and obtained the underlying stage-specific mRNAs and small RNAs, which well explained the cytological dynamics during LJ organogenesis and leaf angle plasticity. Combining the gene coexpression correlation with high-throughput promoter analysis, we identified a set of transcription factors (TFs) determining the stage- and/or cytological structure-specific profiles. The functional studies of these TFs demonstrated that cytological dynamics determined leaf angle and that the knockout rice of these TFs with erect leaves significantly enhanced yield by maintaining the proper tiller number under dense planting. This work revealed the high-resolution mechanisms of how the cytological dynamics of LJ determined leaf erectness and served as a valuable resource to remodel rice architecture for high yield by controlling population density.

Keywords: Biological Sciences; Plant Biology; Plant Development; Transcriptomics.