OsARF11 Promotes Growth, Meristem, Seed, and Vein Formation during Rice Plant Development

The plant hormone auxin acts as a mediator providing positional instructions in a range of developmental processes. Studies in Arabidopsis thaliana L. show that auxin acts in large part via activation of Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) that in turn regulate the expression of downstream genes. The rice (Oryza sativa L.) gene OsARF11 is of interest because of its expression in developing rice organs and its high sequence similarity with MONOPTEROS/ARF5, a gene with prominent roles in A. thaliana development. We have assessed the phenotype of homozygous insertion mutants in the OsARF11 gene and found that in relation to wildtype, osarf11 seedlings produced fewer and shorter roots as well as shorter and less wide leaves. Leaves developed fewer veins and larger areoles. Mature osarf11 plants had a reduced root system, fewer branches per panicle, fewer grains per panicle and fewer filled seeds. Mutants had a reduced sensitivity to auxin-mediated callus formation and inhibition of root elongation, and phenylboronic acid (PBA)-mediated inhibition of vein formation. Taken together, our results implicate OsARF11 in auxin-mediated growth of multiple organs and leaf veins. OsARF11 also appears to play a central role in the formation of lateral root, panicle branch, and grain meristems.

Nigrospora oryzae Causing Panicle Branch Rot Disease on Oryza sativa (rice)

The panicle branch, which is the key node for transport of photosynthesis products from source to sink, is vulnerable to many diseases caused by fungal pathogens, such as Magnaporthe oryzae, Cochliobolus miyabeanus. Among these diseases, rice blast is the most important one which causes devastating losses in many regions. In 2019 and 2020, panicle branch rot of rice with a symptom which could be mistaken with rice blast was observed in a paddy field, where is not traditional epidemical region of rice blast, in Fuyang, Zhejiang province. In 2020, similar symptom was also observed in Hubei and Anhui Province. In a paddy field in Fuyang, the symptom appeared on more than 30% investigated panicles. Diseased panicle exhibited brown to black lesions on primary or secondary branches as well as pedicels, however the grain and the neck of spike could not be infected which is the most obvious difference with rice blast. Obviously, the disease can’t destroy the entire function of branch and blank grain was rarely observed, so its damage is not comparable with neck blast. Normally, it caused incomplete grain filing commonly leading to 5% - 25% grain weight loss. During the booting stage of rice, local solar irradiation time and temperature were fewer and lower than common years which may be responsible for losses caused by this disease. After surface sterilized, lesion parts cut from infected branches from 25 panicle samples were cultured on 2% water agar at 28℃ for 24–28 h, and fungi were isolated and purified by mycelial tip transferring. Among 31 isolates, 26 showed similar cultural characters. The wool-like mycelia were luxuriant and grew rapidly on PDA spreading the whole 9 cm petri dish in less than a week at 28 ℃. The mycelia were white to ashen at beginning and gradually turned black from center of the plate after 5 days culture at 28 ℃. Hyphae were smooth, branched, septate, hyaline or pale brown. Conidia were single-celled, black, spherical to subspherical, and 10.2 to 14.6 × 12.2 to 15.7 μm (n=50) in dimension and born on tip of hyaline and ampulliform conidiophores. The fungus showed similar morphological characteristics with Nigrospora oryzae (1). ITS sequences of 6 representative strains of the fungus were amplified, sequenced with primer pair, ITS1/ITS4 (2), and submitted into GenBank with an accession number, MW228165. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted with sequences of reference strains (3). The result showed that the fungus obtained in this study was fallen into the same group with N.oryzae. In view of above both morphological and molecular analysis, the strains were finally identified as N. oryzae. Pathogenicity tests were conducted in triplicate with rice panicles in initial heading stage. Fifty panicles were wounded on branches with needles and inoculated by spreading the conidia suspension (10μl, 1 × 106 conidia ml-1) on the wounds. The panicles used as control were treated in same way with 10μl of sterile water. The inoculated and control plants were kept in dark, 25 ℃ and relative humidity of more than 85% for 24 h in culture chamber. Symptoms appeared on 44 of 50 inoculated panicles which were basically similar with those observed in paddy field, while negative controls remained symptomless. The fungi re-isolated from inoculated panicles were also confirmed as N. oryzae by both morphological and molecular analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of N. oryzae causing panicle branch rot disease on Oryza sativa (rice). This disease not only cause yield losses and lower milling quality, but could also be mistaken as rice blast incurring unnecessary fungicides spray.

Short Communication: Correlation and regression among rice panicle branches traits

Hastini T, Suwarno WB, Ghulamahdi M, Aswidinnoor H. 2019. Short Communication: Correlation and regression among rice panicle branches traits. Biodiversitas 20: 1140-1146. Panicle was a very important organ in rice since the grains are developed from the panicle branches. This study aimed to find out the information about the relationship among rice panicle branching traits using correlation and regression analysis. The trial was conducted at the IPB Research Station, Babakan, Bogor, Indonesia from December 2015 until April 2016. Twenty genotypes of lowland rice were used as treatments with three replications and arranged in a completely randomized design. The panicle branches traits were observed. The result showed that there was positively and a highly significant relationship among the panicle branches traits in general. Analysis using linear regression revealed that, in general, the total grains number per panicle showed the linear relationships with other traits, and only total grains number per panicle vs tertiary branches number, total grains number per panicle vs grains number of tertiary panicle branch, and total grains number per panicle vs the number of secondary branches per panicle branch showed the quadratic relationship. Among all rice panicle branching traits, the secondary panicle branches number had the highest contribution to the total grains number per panicle.

Components Analysis of Yield Responses to Drought of Sorghum Hybrids

SUMMARYDrought resistance in terms of yield and its components was studied in the field in twenty-one agronomically-adapted high-performance grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench) hybrids. Resistance was considered to be indicated by a minimal decrease in yield under stress as compared with non-stress conditions. Water stress, imposed by a decreasing amount of stored soil moisture during the growing season, decreased grain yield and number of panicles per unit area, increased the number of grains per panicle, the number of branches per whorl and the number of grains per branch, and decreased the number of whorls per panicle. Thus a compensatory effect was observed in some components for reduction in tillering under stress. Resistant hybrids performed better than susceptible ones under stress by producing a relatively higher number of panicles per unit area, and more grains per panicle branch. Susceptible hybrids performed better than resistant ones under non-stress (irrigated) conditions due to the relatively higher number of panicles per unit area and larger 1000-grain weight. Some of the implications regarding selection for yield performance under drought are discussed.