Article
Agronomy
You Zhang, Ben Ovenden, Yao He, Wenwei Ye, Xianjun Wu, William James Peacock, Elizabeth S. Dennis
Summary: Hybrid vigour (heterosis) is an important breeding strategy in crop improvement programs, but its molecular mechanisms are not yet well understood. This study found that hybrid vigour in hybrids derived from certain rice varieties was approximately 40% greater than in the better parents at the early seedling stage. In addition, stable high-yielding lines were developed from these hybrids through selfing and recurrent selection. The importance of photosynthesis in early seedling development and its role in hybrid vigour were demonstrated.
Article
Plant Sciences
Guiquan Zhang
Summary: Rice is an important food crop with two subspecies, indica and japonica. Through genetic modification, different generations of rice varieties have been developed, each with greater yield potential than the previous generation. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in overcoming the hybrid sterility of indica-japonica hybrids, making the development of indica-japonica hybrid rice possible.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Biographical-Item
Agronomy
Zhiyuan Huang, Yeyun Xin, Qiming Lv, Lihuang Zhu
Summary: This article commemorates the life of Prof. Yuan Yuan and his achievements in hybrid rice research, emphasizing the significant contributions of hybrid rice to food security in China and the world.
Article
Agronomy
Taiki Takahashi, Naoyuki Sato, Maya Matsunami, Hiroyuki Shimono
Summary: The use of hybrid rice can increase productivity, and there are significant differences in adaptability and yield among different genotypes. In cool climates with limited cropping windows, a field experiment comparing different cultivars showed that 'Togo 4' and 'Hokuriku 193' had the highest yields, up to 27% higher than the check cultivars. Thinning at full heading increased yield but decreased plant N concentration and leaf SPAD value. The results indicate that earlier maturation and increased source activity addition to greater sink capacity can achieve high yields in cool climates, regardless of hybrid or inbred rice.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yidan Ouyang, Xu Li, Qifa Zhang
Summary: The wide adoption of hybrid rice has greatly increased rice yield in the last several decades. The utilization of heterosis facilitated by male sterility has been a common strategy for hybrid rice development. Studies have found that strong heterosis widely exists in hybrids of diverse germplasms, and inter-subspecific hybrids often display higher heterosis. Analyses of genetic and molecular mechanisms have shown that dominance, overdominance, and epistasis all play important roles in the genetic basis of heterosis. Environment-sensitive genic male sterility enables the development of two-line hybrids, and long noncoding RNAs often function as regulators of genic male sterility. Inter-subspecific hybrids show reduced fertility, but the identification and molecular characterization of hybrid sterility genes offer strategies for overcoming this issue.
JOURNAL OF GENETICS AND GENOMICS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Aurore Vernet, Donaldo Meynard, Qichao Lian, Delphine Mieulet, Olivier Gibert, Matilda Bissah, Ronan Rivallan, Daphne Autran, Olivier Leblanc, Anne Cecile Meunier, Julien Frouin, James Taillebois, Kyle Shankle, Imtiyaz Khanday, Raphael Mercier, Venkatesan Sundaresan, Emmanuel Guiderdoni
Summary: Introducing asexual reproduction through seeds - apomixis - into crop species could revolutionize agriculture. By inducing gene mutations and specific gene expression, researchers were able to generate hybrid rice plants that produce almost entirely clonal seeds across multiple generations, maintaining the characteristics of the hybrid.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Gengmi Li, Tao Zhang, Li Yang, Jian Qin, Qianhua Yang, Yingjiang Cao, Jing Luo, Xiangzhao Li, Lei Gao, Qian Chen, Xingping He, Yong Huang, Chuantao Liu, Ling He, Jiakui Zheng, Kaifeng Jiang
Summary: Heterosis has been widely used in improving rice yield, but its role in rice abiotic stress, particularly drought tolerance, has been rarely studied. Therefore, studying the mechanism of heterosis in improving drought tolerance of rice breeding is essential.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Guojing Shen, Wei Hu, Xianmeng Wang, Xiangchun Zhou, Zhongming Han, Ahmed Sherif, Mohammed Ayaad, Yongzhong Xing
Summary: This study successfully achieved heterosis in an elite rice hybrid by manipulating major quantitative trait loci. The results suggest that dominance underlying functional complementation is an important contributor to yield heterosis and that manipulating several major dominant heterotic loci can successfully achieve heterosis assembly.
JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Yu Zhang, Jie Wang, Qiuhong Pu, Ying Yang, Yonggang Lv, Jiawu Zhou, Jing Li, Xianneng Deng, Min Wang, Dayun Tao
Summary: The study on intraspecific hybrid sterility in Asian cultivated rice reveals the origin, differentiation, and genetic aspects among subgroups. The identification of conserved and specific loci responsible for hybrid sterility between subgroups contributes to the divergence of Asian cultivated rice. Future research aims to characterize the genes for hybrid sterility and segregation distortion to unlock the mysterious relationship between hybrid sterility and Asian cultivated rice divergence.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Noushin Jahan, Yang Lv, Mengqiu Song, Yu Zhang, Lianguang Shang, Ying Lu, Guoyou Ye, Qian Qian, Zhenyu Gao, Longbiao Guo
Summary: In this study, transcriptome profiling and heterosis-related genes were analyzed in a mega rice hybrid and its two parents under control and different salinity levels using RNA-Seq. The experiment revealed a significant number of salt-induced DEGs and highlighted the divergent transcriptomic responses between the rice F1 hybrid and its parental lines under salt stress. Time-dependent molecular mechanisms developed in response to salt stress were also elucidated.
Article
Plant Sciences
Jun Fu, Yilin Zhang, Tianze Yan, Yanfeng Li, Nan Jiang, Yanbiao Zhou, Qunfeng Zhou, Peng Qin, Chenjian Fu, Haiyan Lin, Jing Zhong, Xue Han, Zechuan Lin, Fei Wang, Hang He, Kai Wang, Yuanzhu Yang
Summary: This study analyzed the transcriptomes of two widely grown two-line super hybrid rice varieties and their parents, revealing pathways and genes potentially related to yield and resistance. Allele-specific expression genes were also identified, suggesting their potential role as amino acid sensors in plants. These findings provide insights into the molecular basis of heterosis in hybrid rice.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xiabing Sheng, Zhiyong Ai, Yanning Tan, Yuanyi Hu, Xiayu Guo, Xiaolin Liu, Zhizhong Sun, Dong Yu, Jin Chen, Ning Tang, Meijuan Duan, Dingyang Yuan
Summary: Climate change has led to increased salinity in many areas, particularly in coastal mud flats, which affects rice productivity. This study successfully developed new salt-tolerant rice germplasms through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology combined with heterosis utilization. By developing hybrid rice varieties, a new generation of rice with high salinity tolerance was cultivated.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zhibo Huang, Jing Ye, Rongrong Zhai, Mingming Wu, Faming Yu, Guofu Zhu, Zhoufei Wang, Xiaoming Zhang, Shenghai Ye
Summary: This study finds that the inter-subspecific hybrid rice ZGY1578 shows higher seedling survival after salt treatment compared to its parents ZH1578 and ZG7A. RNA sequencing reveals that there are 2584 and 3061 differentially expressed genes between ZGY1578 and ZG7A, and ZGY1578 and ZH1578, respectively, in the roots under salt stress. The expressions of transcription factors, hormones, and ROS-related genes in the hybrid are lower or higher compared to its parents, suggesting their involvement in the heterosis of salt tolerance.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Shirong Zhou, Meiqing Xing, Zhilong Zhao, Yincong Gu, Yunping Xiao, Qiaoquan Liu, Hongwei Xue
Summary: The research revealed a globally decreased DNA methylation in early developing hybrid rice seeds, with genes related to hormone function and transcriptional regulation showing non-additive methylation. Key genes responsible for heterosis were found to be epigenetically modified in early developing hybrid seeds, indicating the essential role of altered DNA methylation in the initiation and regulation of heterosis in F-1 hybrid plants.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yue Li, Yufei Lu, Yun Zhou, Xiaoli Wei, Yonggang Peng, Yan Dai, Lei Zhang, Zhen Zhu
Summary: The study compared the dynamic transcriptional profiles of a super-hybrid rice and its parents, identifying 1552 rhythmic differentially expressed genes (RDGs) associated with photosynthesis and stress response during day and night phases. Regulatory network analysis revealed that circadian-related RDGs are core components regulating downstream genes involved in various pathways. Additionally, a majority of RDGs mapped onto quantitative trait loci were significantly enriched in yield, vigor, and anatomy categories, offering valuable information for understanding heterosis mechanisms and informing breeding practices.