a. Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Precise Breeding of Future Crops, and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510642, China;
b. Key Laboratory for Enhancing Resource Use Efficiency of Crops in South China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510642, China;
c. Jilin Province Engineering Laboratory of Plant Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130062, China;
d. Henry Fok School of Biology and Agriculture, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan, Guangdong 512005, China
Funds:
We thank Zhuo Chen from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University for ChIP-seq data filtering and analysis. This work was supported by the Biological Breeding-National Science and Technology Major Project (2023ZD040710105), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants U23A20185 and U22A20468), Budgetary Investment in Capital Construction of Jilin Province (2024C014-7), and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023A1515110406).
Drought is a devastating abiotic stress that severely compromises global rice production. Despite decades of extensive research, the molecular mechanisms underlying rice drought tolerance remain largely elusive. Here, we characterize a Cys2/His2 (C2H2)-type zinc finger protein, ZFP151, as a positive transcription factor of rice drought tolerance. Mechanistically, ZFP151 directly binds to the promoter of NCED4, a rate-limiting gene in the abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthetic pathway and transcriptionally activates its expression. Through haplotype analysis of natural rice accessions, we identify five major ZFP151 haplotypes (Hap0–Hap4), among which ZFP151Hap1 is determined as the elite allele. This allele correlates with higher NCED4 expression and elevated ABA levels under drought conditions. Introgression of ZFP151Hap1, the elite allele, into the japonica cultivar Koshihikari, which carries the ZFP151Hap0 allele, significantly improves its drought tolerance. Collectively, our findings uncover the regulatory role of ZFP151 in ABA-mediated drought response and underscores its potential as a target for genetic improvement of drought-tolerant rice varieties.
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