Photosynthesis occurs mainly in chloroplasts, whose development is regulated by proteins encoded by nuclear genes.  Among them, pentapeptide repeat (PPR) proteins participate in organelle RNA editing.  Although there are more than 450 members of the PPR protein family in rice, only a few affect RNA editing in rice chloroplasts.  Gene editing technology has created new rice germplasm and mutants, which could be used for rice breeding and gene function study.  This study evaluated the functions of OsPPR9 in chloroplast RNA editing in rice.  The osppr9 mutants were obtained by CRISPR/Cas9, which showed yellowing leaves and a lethal phenotype, with suppressed expression of genes associated with chloroplast development and accumulation of photosynthetic-related proteins.  In addition, loss of OsPPR9 protein function reduces the editing efficiency of rps8-C182, rpoC2-C4106, rps14-C80, and ndhB-C611 RNA editing sites, which affects chloroplast growth and development in rice.  Our data showed that OsPPR9 is highly expressed in rice leaves and encodes a DYW-PPR protein localized in chloroplasts.  Besides, the OsPPR9 protein was shown to interact with OsMORF2 and OsMORF9.  Together, our findings provide insights into the role of the PPR protein in regulating chloroplast development in rice. 

Moderate leaf rolling can maintain leaf erectness, improve light transmittance in the population, and improve light energy utilization, thereby increasing rice yield.  This study used ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) to treat Yunjing 17 (YJ17) and obtained a semi-rolled leaf mutant that was named semi-rolled leaf 3 (srl3).  We found that the rolled-leaf phenotype was due to the aberrant development of bulliform cells and the loss of sclerenchymatous cells.  In addition, the shoot and root length of srl3 seedlings differed from the wild type.  The srl3 mutant had significantly lower plant height and seed-setting rate but notably greater tiller number, panicle length, and primary branch number per panicle than the wild type.   Genetic analysis showed that a single recessive nuclear gene defined the srl3 mutant, and it was precisely located in a 144-kb region between two insertion-deletion (InDel) markers, M8 and M19, on chromosome 2.  In this region, no leaf-rolling-related genes have been reported previously.  Thus, the study indicated that SRL3 is a novel leaf-rolling-related gene, and the results laid the foundation for the cloning and functional analysis of the SRL3 gene.

     Rice blast, bacterial blight (BB) and brown planthopper (BPH) are the three main pests of rice. This study investigated pyramiding genes resistant to blast, BB and BPH to develop restorer lines. Ten new lines with blast, BB and/or BPH resistance genes were developed using marker-assisted selection (MAS) technique and agronomic trait selection (ATS) method. Only HR13 with resistance genes to blast, BB and BPH was obtained. In addition to blast and BB resistance, four lines (HR39, HR41, HR42, HR43) demonstrated moderate resistance to BPH, but MAS for BPH resistance genes were not conducted in developing these four lines. These data suggested that there were unknown elite BPH resistance genes in the Zhongzu 14 donor parent. A more effective defense was demonstrated in the lines with Pi1 and Pi2 genes although the weather in 2012 was favorable to disease incidence. Blast resistance of the lines with a single resistance gene, Pita, was easily influenced by the weather. Overall, the information obtained through pyramiding multiple resistance genes on developing the restorer lines is helpful for rice resistance breeding.

Sheath blight (SB) disease, caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kühn, is one of the most serious diseases causing rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield loss worldwide. A doubled haploid (DH) population was constructed from a cross between a japonica variety CJ06 and an indica variety TN1, and to analyze the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for SB resistance under three different environments (environments 1–3). Two traits were recorded to evaluate the SB resistance, namely lesion height (LH) and disease rating (DR). Based on field evaluation of SB resistance and a genetic map constructed with 214 markers, a total of eight QTLs were identified for LH and eight QTLs for DR under three environments, respectively. The QTLs for LH were anchored on chromosomes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, and explained 4.35–17.53% of the phenotypic variation. The SB resistance allele of qHNLH4 from TN1 decreased LH by 3.08 cm, and contributed to 17.53% of the variation at environment 1. The QTL for LH (qHZaLH8) detected on chromosome 8 in environment 2 explained 16.71% of the variation, and the resistance allele from CJ06 reduced LH by 4.4 cm. Eight QTLs for DR were identified on chromosomes 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 under three conditions with the explained variation from 2.0 to 11.27%. The QTL for DR (qHZaDR8), which explained variation of 11.27%, was located in the same interval as that of qHZaLH8, both QTLs were detected in environment 2. A total of six pairs of digenic epistatic loci for DR were detected in three conditions, but no epistatic locus was observed for LH. In addition, we detected 12 QTLs for plant height (PH) in three environments. None of the PH-QTLs were co-located with the SB-QTLs. The results facilitate our understanding of the genetic basis for SB resistance in rice.