Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Jingjing Fang

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Jingjing Fang, co-first author of The URL1-ROC5-TPL2 transcriptional repressor complex represses the ACL1 gene to modulate leaf rolling in rice

Current Position: Research Associate, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICS-CAAS)

Education: Ph.D., Genetics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Non-scientific Interests: hiking, traveling, reading

Brief bio: I have been luckily engaged in post-doctoral research in Professor Xueyong Li’s Lab, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences since 2012. I mainly focused on dissecting the genetic molecular mechanisms of rice plant architecture. Leaf is the major organ for photosynthesis in rice plant. The improvement of leaf morphology is one of the main targets of rice breeding for ideal plant architecture. Moderate leaf rolling is beneficial for the improvement of photosynthesis rate and grain yield. In this study, we screened a semi-dominant rice mutant upward rolled leaf 1 (Url1) showing adaxially rolled leaves. Map-based cloning revealed that URL1 encodes a HD-ZIP IV family transcription factor. Interestingly, a single-base substitution in the conserved motifs unique to the 3′-UTR of this family enhanced the URL1 mRNA stability. We further revealed that URL1, ROC5 and the transcriptional corepressor TPL2 could form a transcriptional repression complex which directly binds to the promoter of ACL1 and suppresses its expression to modulate leaf rolling. This study is helpful to construct and improve the molecular regulatory network of rice leaf rolling and has important theoretical and practical significance for plant architecture breeding in rice.

姓名：房静静

职位：中国农业科学院作物科学研究所 助理研究员

教育经历：中国科学院遗传与发育生物学研究所，博士

兴趣爱好：徒步，旅行，阅读

个人简介：我从2012年起有幸进入中国农业科学院作物科学研究所李学勇研究员实验室从事博士后研究，主要开展水稻株型调控的遗传分子机理解析。叶片作为水稻光合作用的主要场所，其形态改良是水稻株型育种的重要目标之一。叶片适度卷曲有利于提高光合效率和产量。在该项研究中，我们筛选获得一个水稻半显性内卷叶突变体Url1，并图位克隆获得了候选基因URL1，发现该基因编码HD-ZIP IV 家族的转录因子。很有趣的是，我们发现在URL1 3′-UTR区的1个进化保守基序内发生的单碱基突变增强了其mRNA的稳定性，进一步利用生化及遗传学方法证明了URL1-ROC5-TPL2可形成转录抑制复合物，直接结合到泡状细胞发育正调控因子ACL1启动子上并抑制其表达，进而调控水稻叶片的卷曲。该项研究有助于构建和完善水稻叶片卷曲分子调控网络，对水稻株型育种具有重要的理论和指导意义。