As Yuan Longping's superhybrid rice popularize since the 1970s in China, advantage of hybridization finds wide application in agricultural production and helps a lot in solving the country's food problems. However, the hereditary basis and molecular mechanism of superhybrid rice remain a scientific mystery.
Light was shed on the mystery with the publication on hereditary basis and molecular mechanism of superhybrid rice LYP9 and its parents on
PNAS.
The project is led by Zhu Lihuang, Zhu Zhen, both from State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS, Yu Jun from Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, CAS, and Yuan Longping, from National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center They investigated the transcriptome profiles in developing leaves and panicles of superhybrid rice LYP9 and its parental cultivars 93-11 and PA64s.
Clustering results showed that the F1 hybrid's expression profiles resembled those of its parental lines more than what lies between the 2 parental lines. Out of the total gene set, 7,078 genes are shared by all sampled tissues and 3,926 genes (10.6% of the total gene set) are differentially expressed genes (DG).
As researchers divided DG into those between the parents (DGPP) and between the hybrid and its parents (DGHP), the comparative results showed that genes in the categories of energy metabolism and transport are enriched in DGHP rather than in DGPP.
"These findings provide a starting point for uncovering its mechanistic basis in one of the world's most important food crops", Cell, one of the most cited scientific journals, especially in the Molecular Biology and Genetics category, said in its column of Leading Edge.
Yuan Longping, a Chinese agricultural scientist, is known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s. His "hybrid rice" has since been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia -providing a robust food source in high famine risk areas. It is estimated that hybrid rice helps to feed tens of millions of population around the globe, Honored as "The Father of Hybrid Rice", Yuan is hailed as a national hero of China and has received numerous national and international awards.
Contact:
Yuan Longping: National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, Changsha 410125, China; (
http://www.cae.cn/swordcms/html/images/enmember.htm?444)
Zhu Lihuang: State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (
http://en.genetics.ac.cn/Faculty/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=89)
Zhu Zhen: State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; (
http://en.genetics.ac.cn/Faculty/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=90)
Yu Jun: Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101300, China; (
http://www.big.ac.cn/big/english/center/yj.jsp)
