Novel High Yielding Rice Ideotype: DEP5/NPT1/OTUB

Tech ID: 17.625

Key Features

• Novel High Yielding Rice Ideotype
• 10% yield increase, tested over 3 years
• Genome editing target for increased yield in a wide range of crops
• Functional orthologues demonstrated in maize, barley and unrelated species.

Description

Researchers at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing have cloned and characterized a QTL in rice that is alone responsible for a “new plant type” (NPT) rice crop ideotype with distinctive architecture, having larger panicles, fewer sterile tillers, stronger culms and higher yield.  This gene encodes a deubiquitinating enzyme, OTUB1, never before associated with a phenotype in plants but which is highly conserved across plants and other species.  Reducing the expression or activity of OTUB1 (though not its complete loss) increases grain yield via effects on a number of important yield component traits.  This opens the way for increased crop yields using a variety of strategies, including genome editing, and in a range of crop species.

For further detailed information please download the non-confidential summary pdf.

Patents

Published: WO 2018/215779; AR Bulletin 1056; EP 3634984; BR Journal 2580; CN 111032684A; EA 201992790A1; US 2021-0017532; IN 201917053571A

Granted: US 11,725,214; AU 2018274709; EA 201992790

References

Shuansuo Wang et al (2017).  Non-canonical regulation of SPL transcription factors by a human OTUB1-like deubiquitinase defines a new plant type rice associated with higher grain yield.  Cell Research; 27: 1142-1156.  https://doi.org/10.1038/cr.2017.98

Ke Huang et al (2017).  WIDE AND THICK GRAIN 1, which encodes an otubain-like protease with deubiquitination activity, influences grain size and shape in rice.  The Plant Journal; 91(5): 849-860.  https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13613