Chloroplast development at low temperature requires the pseudouridine synthase gene TCD3 in rice.

Dongzhi Lin, Rongrong Kong, Lu Chen, Yulu Wang, Lanlan Wu, Jianlong Xu, Zhongze Piao, Gangseob Lee, Yanjun Dong

Scientific reports 2020 May 22

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Low temperature affects a broad spectrum of cellular components in plants, such as chloroplasts, as well as plant metabolism. On the other hand, pseudouridine (Ψ) synthases are required for the most abundant post-transcriptional modification of RNA in Escherichia coli. However, the role of rice Ψ synthases in regulating chloroplast development at low temperature remains elusive. In this study, we identified the rice thermo-sensitive chlorophyll-deficient (tcd3) mutant, which displays an albino phenotype before the 4-leaf stage and ultimately dies when grown at 20 °C, but can grow normally at 32 °C. Genetic analysis showed that the mutant trait is controlled by a single recessive nuclear gene (tcd3). Map-based cloning, complementation and knockout tests revealed that TCD3 encodes a chloroplast-localized Ψ synthase. TCD3 is a cold-induced gene that is mainly expressed in leaves. The disruption of TCD3 severely affected the transcript levels of various chloroplast-associated genes, as well as ribosomal genes involved in chloroplast rRNA assembly at low temperature (20 °C), whereas the transcript levels of these genes were normal at high temperature (32 °C). These results provide a first glimpse into the importance of rice Ψ synthase gene in chloroplast development at low temperatures.

Citation

Dongzhi Lin, Rongrong Kong, Lu Chen, Yulu Wang, Lanlan Wu, Jianlong Xu, Zhongze Piao, Gangseob Lee, Yanjun Dong. Chloroplast development at low temperature requires the pseudouridine synthase gene TCD3 in rice. Scientific reports. 2020 May 22;10(1):8518