Peng Xinxiang Group of South China Agricultural University created a new quality of high-gloss rice

January 16, reporters from South China Agricultural University was informed that the school Peng Xinxiang task force to create a new high-gloss rice quality, can increase production by up to 27%. The findings were published January 10 in Molecular Plant.
photorespiration, a bio-chemical process that oxidizes carbohydrates to produce CO
and water, is a high-energy reaction that consumes up to 50% of photosynthelates. Therefore, reducing the loss caused by light breathing is an important means to improve the utilization rate of plant light energy.
Peng Xinxiang team used the genes of rice itself to create a new photorespiration branch and successfully imported it into the leafy green body of rice to form a photolyzing CO
enrichment mechanism, which significantly improved the photolyzing efficiency and yield of rice. It's worth noting that Cell Press promotes this important achievement under the title Rice plants engineered to be better photosynthesis make more rice.
the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts that the global population will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050. If crop yields remain at current levels, humanity will face severe food shortages. In response to this problem, since the beginning of this century, a "second green revolution" centered on improving plant photochemical efficiency through bioengineering technology has been launched worldwide, and the "light respiratory metabolism project" is considered a key breakthrough in this revolution.
Peng Xinxiang introduced, the so-called light breathing, is dependent on a breathing effect of light, driven by light carbohydrate oxidation to produce CO
and water, normal growth conditions of light breathing can lose 25-30% of the photolyzing products, if encountering high temperature, drought and other adversity conditions, its loss ratio will be higher, can be as high as more than 50%. Since the "branch roads" that have been reported so far have introduced exogenetic genes derived from E. coli or green algae, their popularization and application are less likely to be recognized by the public.
It is understood that Peng Xinxiang task force lasted more than 10 years, after several setbacks, and finally used the rice itself three genes, namely OsGLO3 (ethanol acid oxidase), OsOXO3 (oxalic acid oxidase) and OsCATC (hydrogen peroxide enzyme), successfully built a new light breathing branch, referred to as GOC branch. The GOC branch was successfully imported into rice and positioned into the yelorosphere by multi-gene conversion technology, which catalyticized some ethanolic acid produced by light respiration directly into oxalic acid in the leafy body and eventually completely decomposed into CO
, thus forming a photolytic CO
enrichment mechanism similar to that of C4 plants.
Peng Xinxiang pointed out that the photolyzing efficiency, biomass and grain yield (early production) of the GOC engineering rice strains increased by 15-22%, 14-35% and 7-27%, respectively. At the same time, GOC plants also showed many esoteric characteristics similar to those of long-term growth under high CO
environmental conditions, such as increased sugar content of leaves, increased yerophyl content, increased volume of leafy bodies, increased number of starch grains, increased volume, increased expression of genes related to sugar metabolism. More interestingly, the nitrogen content in GOC rice leaves has also increased significantly, which means that the diversion of light respiration metabolism may also reduce nitrogen loss and thus improve the efficiency of nitrogen utilization in plants. The study also found that GOC rice has more advantages under high-gloss conditions.
the GOC branch is more stable in improving biomass, it may be more suitable for high-gloss improvements to tuberous plants such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava and other food crops. Peng Xinxiang task force is currently trying to transform the above crops and other rice varieties, and further optimize the relevant promoters, with a view to solving the problem of decreased seolstical rate. For the first time, the study successfully achieved the creation of photolytic CO
concentration mechanism and high-light-effects in major food crops and under the conditions of field cultivation.
Zhu Xinguang, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that improving the efficiency of photocodynaxic energy utilization is an important way to further greatly improve crop yield at present, and creating photorespiration branch to effectively reduce the loss of light energy utilization efficiency caused by RubisCO's oxygenation activity is an important means to improve the efficiency of light energy utilization and crop yield. He pointed out that in order to complete the work, Peng Xinxiang task force overcomes a series of technical difficulties, including the establishment of a new type of chlorophyrophyte transport peptides, to achieve a more variety of proteins to the chlorophyte single-up, efficient expression. (Source: Science Network Zhu Hanbin Fang Qisheng)