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| A High-temperature-induced miR2871a Affects Rice (Oryza sativa) Grain Thickness by Regulating Aleurone Layer Development |
| XING Yuan-Hang1,*, JIANG Wen-Jing1,*, ZHU Xin-Feng1, XIE Yu-Jun1, NI Shen2, LUO Qiu-Hong1,**, YU Jin-Sheng1,** |
1 College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China;
2 State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 311400, China |
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Abstract Grain shape is a core agronomic trait determining rice (Oryza sativa) yield and quality. As a key component of grain shape, grain thickness directly influences the thousand-grain weight and milling quality of rice. As important post-transcriptional regulators, microRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in plant growth and development. In this study, taking grain shape regulation as the starting point, loss-of-function mutants of rice miR2871a were successfully generated using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Systematic phenotypic analysis revealed that the mutants exhibited significantly reduced grain thickness and thousand-grain weight for both paddy and brown rice across multiple environments (P<0.05), accompanied by a significant increase in the chalky grain rate of milled rice (P<0.05). Histological observations demonstrated severe impairment in the development of the aleurone layer in mutant's caryopses, characterized by reduced cell layers, thinner thickness, and delayed developmental progression. Multi-element analysis revealed that defects in aleurone layer structure directly led to a significant decrease in the accumulation of key mineral elements, such as zinc, manganese, and calcium, in brown rice (P<0.05). Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis showed that differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in thiamine metabolism and other biosynthetic pathways closely related to aleurone layer function. This study reveals the key regulatory role of miR2871a in the development of rice grain thickness and aleurone layer, and provides novel and important genetic resources for the synergistic genetic improvement of rice grain shape and nutritional quality.
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Received: 26 January 2026
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Corresponding Authors:
**lqh@zafu.edu.cn; jinshyu@zafu.edu.cn
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| About author:: *These authors contributed equally to this work |
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