Ghd7‑triggered transcriptional regulation for synergistically improving rice eating quality and yield

Improving both eating quality and yield remains a major challenge in rice breeding. Here, we identify Ghd7 as the causal gene underlying the grain amylose content QTL qAC7 and reveal Ghd7–triggered transcriptional regulation that balances starch and protein to coordinate yield and quality. Ghd7 transcriptionally activates PCF3 and exhibits dominant epistasis over it. A natural TA/T variant in PCF3 determines its DNA-binding affinity: the PCF3‑T allele strongly represses OsNF-YC4, increasing starch and reducing protein in grain, whereas PCF3‑TA fails to exert this repressive effect. Haplotype and evolutionary analyses show that the favorable allele PCF3‑T has not been selected. Combining Ghd7‑1/4 with PCF3‑T further enhances both yield and eating quality. Our findings uncover a possible transcriptional cascade and highlight Ghd7‑1/4 and PCF3‑T as promising targets for simultaneously improving rice yield and quality. Rice breeders struggle to boost yield and eating quality simultaneously as the two traits often work against each other. Here, the authors identify a CCT domain transcription regulator encoding gene Ghd7 in determining rice grain amylose content and functioning in balancing starch and protein to coordinate yield and quality.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-10-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78253-x
Primary Topic
Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Ghd7‑triggered transcriptional regulation for synergistically improving rice eating quality and yield

Wenting Rao, Dao‐Xiu Zhou, Aiqing You, Junxiao Chen et al.
Nature Communications
Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
article

Ghd7‑triggered transcriptional regulation for synergistically improving rice eating quality and yield

Wenting Rao, Dao‐Xiu Zhou, Aiqing You, Junxiao Chen, Haozhou Gao, Minqi Li, Huan Shi, Lizhong Xiong, Pingli Chen, Guangming Lou, Xuelei Lai, Zixuan Zhao, Yuexing Wang, Yibo Li, Yuqing He, Bian Wu, Shiyuan Cheng, Guanjun Gao, Yuanyuan Zheng, Ping Yan, Gonghao Jiang, Yanhua Li, Yuli Cao, Yahong Tian, Ruoqian Yu
article en

Abstract

Improving both eating quality and yield remains a major challenge in rice breeding. Here, we identify Ghd7 as the causal gene underlying the grain amylose content QTL qAC7 and reveal Ghd7–triggered transcriptional regulation that balances starch and protein to coordinate yield and quality. Ghd7 transcriptionally activates PCF3 and exhibits dominant epistasis over it. A natural TA/T variant in PCF3 determines its DNA-binding affinity: the PCF3‑T allele strongly represses OsNF-YC4, increasing starch and reducing protein in grain, whereas PCF3‑TA fails to exert this repressive effect. Haplotype and evolutionary analyses show that the favorable allele PCF3‑T has not been selected. Combining Ghd7‑1/4 with PCF3‑T further enhances both yield and eating quality. Our findings uncover a possible transcriptional cascade and highlight Ghd7‑1/4 and PCF3‑T as promising targets for simultaneously improving rice yield and quality. Rice breeders struggle to boost yield and eating quality simultaneously as the two traits often work against each other. Here, the authors identify a CCT domain transcription regulator encoding gene Ghd7 in determining rice grain amylose content and functioning in balancing starch and protein to coordinate yield and quality.

Nature Communications
Huazhong Agricultural University (CN), Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), China National Rice Research Institute (CN), State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Heilongjiang University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 13%
Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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