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Heterotrimeric G proteins regulate nitrogen-use efficiency in rice

Nature Genetics volume 46, pages 652–656 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The drive toward more sustainable agriculture has raised the profile of crop plant nutrient-use efficiency. Here we show that a major rice nitrogen-use efficiency quantitative trait locus (qNGR9) is synonymous with the previously identified gene DEP1 (DENSE AND ERECT PANICLES 1). The different DEP1 alleles confer different nitrogen responses, and genetic diversity analysis suggests that DEP1 has been subjected to artificial selection during Oryza sativa spp. japonica rice domestication. The plants carrying the dominant dep1-1 allele exhibit nitrogen-insensitive vegetative growth coupled with increased nitrogen uptake and assimilation, resulting in improved harvest index and grain yield at moderate levels of nitrogen fertilization. The DEP1 protein interacts in vivo with both the Gα (RGA1) and Gβ (RGB1) subunits, and reduced RGA1 or enhanced RGB1 activity inhibits nitrogen responses. We conclude that the plant G protein complex regulates nitrogen signaling and modulation of heterotrimeric G protein activity provides a strategy for environmentally sustainable increases in rice grain yield.

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Figure 1: The effect of nitrogen fertilization levels on rice plant architecture.
Figure 2: DEP1 is required for a nitrogen response.
Figure 3: The interaction between DEP1 and RGB1.
Figure 4: DEP1 interacts with the G protein α subunit.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N.P. Harberd for the critical comments on the manuscript and P. Schulze-Lefert, H. Liao and Y. Tong for advice. This research was supported by grants from the 973 Program from National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB915403, 2011CB100302 and 2012AA10A301) and the National Natural Science Foundation (31130070 and 91335207) to X.F.

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Author notes

  1. Hongying Sun, Qian Qian, Kun Wu, Jijing Luo and Shuansuo Wang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Centre for Plant Gene Research, Beijing, China

    Hongying Sun, Kun Wu, Shuansuo Wang, Chengwei Zhang, Yanfei Ma, Qian Liu, Xianzhong Huang, Qingbo Yuan, Ruixi Han, Meng Zhao & Xiangdong Fu

  2. The State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou, China

    Qian Qian, Guojun Dong, Longbiao Guo & Xudong Zhu

  3. The State Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Jijing Luo & Hongxuan Lin

  4. Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China

    Meng Zhao & Yuejin Wu

  5. The State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China

    Zhiheng Gou & Wen Wang

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  1. Hongying Sun
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Contributions

Q.Q., G.D. and L.G. performed assays of nitrogen-use efficiency. S.W., Q.Y. and X.H. developed the RIL populations. X.H. and K.W. conducted the genetic analysis. J.L. and K.W. were responsible for the positional cloning. K.W., J.L. and H.L. developed the NILs. X.Z. and Y.M. identified the mutants. R.H. and Q.L. performed DNA sequence analysis. H.S. and X.H. carried out the yeast two-hybrid and BiFC experiments. H.S. and M.Z. characterized the phenotype of transgenic plants. C.Z., S.W., K.W. and Y.W. performed field experiments. Z.G. and W.W. were responsible for diversity analysis. X.F. designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiangdong Fu.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Note, Supplementary Tables 1-5 and Supplementary Figures 1-18 (PDF 2028 kb)

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Sun, H., Qian, Q., Wu, K. et al. Heterotrimeric G proteins regulate nitrogen-use efficiency in rice. Nat Genet 46, 652–656 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2958

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