Preliminary Study On The Involvement Of OsCPL3 Gene In Rice Develpoment

Plants have evolved an array of responses that provide them with protection from various biotic and abiotic stresses.Beyond the academic appeal,characterization of key components involved in the plant adaptation to the ever-changing environment is of pivotal importance to the sustainable agriculture and food supply.Studies have shown that AtCPLs play key roles in response to a range of abiotic stresses including drought,salt,cold and ABA in Arabidopsis thaliana.However,our knowledge of the homologous CPL genes in rice,an interesting model monocot species and a major crop plant in the world,remains very limited.In this study,we concentrated our interest on one member of the rice CPL gene family,OsCPL3,and found that OsCPL3,and likely the OsCPL family as a whole,has a key role to play in regulating plant development and growth.Our main findings are summarized here:1.Sequence and phylogenetic analysis shows that although CPL3 homologues are widely existed in eukaryote;there are only one copy of CPL3 gene in rice genome,and OsCPL3 harbours both the conserved FCPH and the BRCT domains.2.Promoter activity and gene expression pattern analysis shows that OsCPL3 expresses widely in rice root,shoot,leaf and spikelet.And the subcellular localization tests suggest that OsCPL3 is located into the nucleus,consistent with our prediction that OsCPL3 functions in modulating the activity of RNAP?.3.Observations made on the CPL3 deficient mutant cpl3 shows that CPL3 function is required to govern the normal root development and tillering,as well as rice plant height,photosynthesis and plant productivity.4.Anatomy analysis indicates that loss of OsCPL3 function reduced cell size and numbers,likely via repressing cell cycle as recent studies on animal homologues suggested.We are currently working on the phenotype verification and the possible molecular mechanism as well.