Research Papers

Regulation of Amylose Content in Rice by Editing Wx Using CBE Base Editor

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  • 1College of Life Sciences, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
    2State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 310006, China
    3Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
* email:uegzkg@sina.com.cn;liuchaolei@caas.cn

Received date: 2024-07-07

  Revised date: 2024-10-23

  Online published: 2025-11-19

Abstract

【Objective】 The Wx gene, a key regulator of amylose synthesis in rice, encodes a granule-bound starch synthase and plays a crucial role in determining the amylose content, thereby directly influencing the quality traits of rice. 【Method】 We used the CBE base editor to introduce base substitutions within the first exon of the Wx gene in Shendao18 variety, resulting in two distinct mutation types: GCCCCC→GCCCTT and GCCCCC→GCTCTC. Both mutations led to the substitution of proline with leucine at position 94 of the Wx protein, designated as WxP94L-1 and WxP94L-2 respectively. 【Result】 Field experiments demonstrated that compared to the wild type, both WxP94L-1 and WxP94L-2 plants exhibited no significant differences in plant height, tiller number per plant, panicle length, grain morphology or 1000-grain weight. Rice quality analysis revealed that the amylose content decreased from 14.9% (wild type) to 12.5% (WxP94L-1) and 12.1% (WxP94L-2), while traits such as viscosity, alkali spreading value and protein content showed no significant change compared to the wild type. 【Conclusion】 Our study successfully generated a novel allele of the Wx gene named WxP94L using CBE base editor which resulted in a slight reduction in amylose content; thus providing a way for enhancing rice quality.

Cite this article

CHEN Yuye, JIAO Xiaozhen, WANG Jian, WANG Kejian, CHEN Feng, ZHU Keming, LIU Chaolei . Regulation of Amylose Content in Rice by Editing Wx Using CBE Base Editor[J]. Chinese Journal OF Rice Science, 2025 , 39(6) : 771 -778 . DOI: 10.16819/j.1001-7216.2025.240705

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