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Constitutively wilted 1, a member of the rice YUCCA gene family, is required for maintaining water homeostasis and an appropriate root to shoot ratio

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Abstract

Increasing its root to shoot ratio is a plant strategy for restoring water homeostasis in response to the long-term imposition of mild water stress. In addition to its important role in diverse fundamental processes, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is involved in root growth and development. Recent extensive characterizations of the YUCCA gene family in Arabidopsis and rice have elucidated that member’s function in a tryptophan-dependent IAA biosynthetic pathway. Through forward- and reverse-genetics screening, we have isolated Tos17 and T-DNA insertional rice mutants in a CONSTITUTIVELY WILTED1 (COW1) gene, which encodes a new member of the YUCCA protein family. Homozygous plants with either a Tos17 or T-DNA-inserted allele of OsCOW1 exhibit phenotypes of rolled leaves, reduced leaf widths, and lower root to shoot ratios. These phenotypes are evident in seedlings as early as 7–10 d after germination, and remain until maturity. When oscow1 seedlings are grown under low-intensity light and high relative humidity, the rolled-leaf phenotype is greatly alleviated. For comparison, in such conditions, the transpiration rate for WT leaves decreases approx. 5- to 10-fold, implying that this mutant trait results from wilting rather than being a morphogenic defect. Furthermore, a lower turgor potential and transpiration rate in their mature leaves indicates that oscow1 plants are water-deficient, due to insufficient water uptake that possibly stems from that diminished root to shoot ratio. Thus, our observations suggest that OsCOW1-mediated IAA biosynthesis plays an important role in maintaining root to shoot ratios and, in turn, affects water homeostasis in rice.

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Acknowledgements

We thank In-Soon Park and Kyungsook An for generating the T-DNA insertional lines, Yoonja Cho for managing the transgenic seeds, Chang-Duk Jung for growing the transformed plants, and Priscilla Licht for English editing of the manuscript. This work was supported, in part, by grants from the Crop Functional Genomic Center, the 21st Century Frontier Program (Grant CG1111); from the Biogreen 21 Program, Rural Development Administration; and from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the National Research Laboratory Program funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (M10600000270-06J0000-27010).

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  1. Hee-Jin Park

    Present address: Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics, Division of Molecular and Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Young-Min Woo, Hee-Jin Park, Jung-Il Yang, Jong-Jin Park & Gynheung An

  2. Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 660-701, Korea

    Mukhamad Su’udi

  3. Department of Molecular Biotechnology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757, Korea

    Kyoungwhan Back

  4. Department of Life Science, Cheongju University, Cheongju, 360-764, Korea

    Yong-Mok Park

  5. Biotech Center, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31 Hyojadong, Namgu, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Gynheung An

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Woo, YM., Park, HJ., Su’udi, M. et al. Constitutively wilted 1, a member of the rice YUCCA gene family, is required for maintaining water homeostasis and an appropriate root to shoot ratio. Plant Mol Biol 65, 125–136 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-007-9203-6

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