Project description:Cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) is frequently exposed to multiple stresses, including Schizotetranychus oryzae mite infestation. Rice domestication has narrowed the genetic diversity of the species, leading to a wide susceptibility. This work aimed to observe the response of two wild rice species (Oryza barthii and O. glaberrima) and two O. sativa genotypes (cv. Nipponbare and f. spontanea) to S. oryzae infestation. Surprisingly, leaf damage, histochemistry, chlorophyll concentration and fluorescence showed that the wild species present higher level of leaf damage, increased accumulation of H2O2 and lower photosynthetic capacity when compared to O. sativa genotypes under infested conditions. Infestation decreased tiller number, except in Nipponbare. Infestation also caused the death of wild plants during the reproductive stage. While infestation did not affect the weight of 1,000 grains in both O. sativa genotypes, the number of panicles per plant was affected only in f. spontanea, and the percentage of full seeds per panicle and seed length were increased only in Nipponbare. Using proteomic analysis, we identified 195 differentially abundant proteins when comparing susceptible (O. barthii) and tolerant (Nipponbare) genotypes under control and infested conditions. O. barthii has a less abundant antioxidant arsenal and is unable to modulate proteins involved with general metabolism and energy production under infested condition. Nipponbare presents high abundance of detoxification-related proteins, general metabolic processes and energy production, suggesting that, under infested condition, the primary metabolism is maintained more active compared to O. barthii. Also, under infested conditions, Nipponbare presents higher levels of proline and a greater abundance of defense-related proteins, such as osmotin, ricin B-like lectin, and protease inhibitors. These differentially abundant proteins can be used as biotechnological tools in breeding programs aiming increased tolerance to mite infestation.
Project description:Rice was domesticated independently in Asia and Africa, leading to two distinct but closely related crop species, Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima, respectively. The two domestications lead to morphological changes, in which a higher branching complexity of the panicles, influencing seed production and crop yield. Although much emphasis was placed on changes in transcriptional regulation during rice domestication and improvement, no large-scale study of small RNA regulation changes during domestication has been reported so far. To analyze whether rice domestication has altered the expression of small RNAs, we performed deep sequencing of small RNA transcriptomes from early developmental stages of panicles from 10 genotypes of the cultivated African species and 10 genotypes of its wild-relative O. barthii. Our study shows a drastic expression change of the 21-nucleotide smallRNA population. A total of 29% of these smallRNAs are overexpressed in panicles of O. barthii vs. O. glaberrima, corresponding mainly to 21-nucleotide phased siRNAs (or phasiRNAs). We also show that these changes are associated with a differential expression of a known regulator of phased siRNAs, miR2118 during early panicle development. Finally, these changes are associated to a heterochronic alteration of phasiRNAs and miR2118 expression pattern, during panicle development with a delayed expression in the domesticated species. Our study suggests a major reshaping of the regulation network from a specific class of small RNA during African rice domestication.