Cheol Seong Jang | PubMed Health

PubMed2025

Rice E3 ligase OsRFPH2-16 acts as a negative regulator to mediate the degradation of OsPIP1;1 under salt stress.

Soil salinity has a significant negative effect on rice productivity. We characterized the Oryza sativa RING Finger Protein H2-type-16 gene (OsRFPH2-16), which plays a negative role in response to salinity. The transcript levels of OsRFPH2-16 decreased under saline conditions. OsRFPH2-16 was expressed in the ER and tonoplasts of rice protoplasts. In addition, OsRFPH2-16 exhibited E3 ligase activity in an in vitro ubiquitination assay, whereas the mutant OsRFPH2-16C188A E3 ligase did not exhibit any activity. We constructed OsRFPH2-16-overexpressing (OX-2 and OX-4) and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated OsRFPH2-16-knockout (KO-4 and KO-16) plants and evaluated their salt responses. Under salt stress, OsRFPH2-16-knockout plants exhibited improved salt tolerance, characterized by low Na+ accumulation, high non-antioxidant content, and dynamic changes in the expression levels of Na+ transporter genes, compared with wild-type and OsRFPH2-16-overexpression plants. The aquaporin OsPIP1;1, an interacting partner, was identified using yeast two-hybridization, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and pull-down assays. Degradation of OsPIP1;1 by the E3 ligase OsRFPH2-16 via the 26S proteasome system was confirmed through an in vitro degradation assay with the inhibitor MG132. These findings support that the E3 ligase functions as a negative regulator, leading to reduced Na+ accumulation in salt stress responses.

Oryza↗

PubMed2006

Functional classification, genomic organization, putatively cis-acting regulatory elements, and relationship to quantitative trait loci, of sorghum genes with rhizome-enriched expression.

Rhizomes are organs of fundamental importance to plant competitiveness and invasiveness. We have identified genes expressed at substantially higher levels in rhizomes than other plant parts, and explored their functional categorization, genomic organization, regulatory motifs, and association with quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring rhizomatousness. The finding that genes with rhizome-enriched expression are distributed across a wide range of functional categories suggests some degree of specialization of individual members of many gene families in rhizomatous plants. A disproportionate share of genes with rhizome-enriched expression was implicated in secondary and hormone metabolism, and abiotic stimuli and development. A high frequency of unknown-function genes reflects our still limited knowledge of this plant organ. A putative oligosaccharyl transferase showed the highest degree of rhizome-specific expression, with several transcriptional or regulatory protein complex factors also showing high (but lesser) degrees of specificity. Inferred by the upstream sequences of their putative rice (Oryza sativa) homologs, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) genes that were relatively highly expressed in rhizome tip tissues were enriched for cis-element motifs, including the pyrimidine box, TATCCA box, and CAREs box, implicating the gibberellins in regulation of many rhizome-specific genes. From cDNA clones showing rhizome-enriched expression, expressed sequence tags forming 455 contigs were plotted on the rice genome and aligned to QTL likelihood intervals for ratooning and rhizomatous traits in rice and sorghum. Highly expressed rhizome genes were somewhat enriched in QTL likelihood intervals for rhizomatousness or ratooning, with specific candidates including some of the most rhizome-specific genes. Some rhizomatousness and ratooning QTLs were shown to be potentially related to one another as a result of ancient duplication, suggesting long-term functional conservation of the underlying genes. Insight into genes and pathways that influence rhizome growth set the stage for genetic and/or exogenous manipulation of rhizomatousness, and for further dissection of the molecular evolution of rhizomatousness.

Chromosome Mapping↗