Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Functional characterization of OsLRR, a LEUCINE-RICH REPEAT FAMILY gene, for its role in regulating floral initiation and meristem maintenance in rice |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Amarjot Kaur, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi |
Timeline Start Year : | 2022 |
Timeline End Year : | 2024 |
Contact info : | justamar1988@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | The transition from vegetative to reproductive meristem marks a major developmental switch in plant’s life cycle resulting in seed set and perpetuation of progeny. Based on this background information available through the analysis of a large number of Arabidopsis mutants, slowly, the focus is now shifting to the cereal crops, like rice, as they form the major portion of the daily food requirements. A number of genes involved in floral evocation in rice have been worked out in recent past but these pathways are still not complete and the whole network of genes involved in the regulation of flowering and seed set needs to be explored. One such initiative undertaken by the proposer during the last phase of her Ph.D. was to identify genes differentially expressing in shoot apical meristem (SAM) and very early stages of panicle initiation and development using the microarray platform. The in-depth analysis of microarray data has resulted in the shortlisting of the OsLRR gene. OsLRR belongs to leucine-rich repeat domain containing family genes and expresses majorly in SAM and during very early stages of panicle development. Constitutive overexpression of OsLRR in rice slightly delayed flowering whereas its knockdown lines flowered earlier than WT and vector control lines, suggesting its role in the floral initiation pathway. In addition, its promoter fused with GUS reporter gene showed GUS expression in the root apical meristem (RAM) as well as shoot apical meristem (SAM). Also, Arabidopsis overexpression transgenics showed marked increase in the size of SAM when compared to WT and atrlp29 Arabidopsis mutant (AtRLP29- ortholog of OsLRR). These flowering related phenotypes and meristem expression strongly suggests its role in the floral initiation and meristem maintenance pathways but a few experimental evidences, like protein-protein interaction, yeast and microarray studies, are required to fully confirm this hypothesis. Its possible involvement in the flowering transition and meristem maintenance pathways could be exploited for modulating traits of great agronomic importance like flowering time as well as increasing the grain yield of major crop plants. |
Organizations involved