OsIAA23 Promotes Heading by Directly Downregulating Ghd7 in rice

Ghd7 is a central regulator to multiple growth and development processes in rice. While it is not clear how Ghd7 is regulated by upstream factors. To identify its upstream regulator, the truncated Ghd7 promoter fragments were used to screen cis elements binding to rice total nuclear proteins. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays screened one truncated fragment f3 binding to the proteins. Subsequently, the fragment f3 was employed to screen a yeast one-hybrid library, and a transcription factor OsIAA23 was screened as a direct upstream regulator of Ghd7. Dual-luciferase transient assay demonstrated the transcriptional repression effect of OsIAA23 on the activity of Ghd7, and the location of the cis elements binding to OsIAA23 in the region 1264 to 1255 bp upstream of ATG. Genetic analysis between the wild type Ghd7-OsIAA23 and single/double mutants further verified that OsIAA23 downregulated Ghd7 expression and led to a delayed heading under long day conditions. Moreover, natural variations in fragment f3 were associated with heading and geographic distribution in rice. This study sheds light on the direct regulatory mechanism of OsIAA23 on Ghd7, which enriches the understanding of the Ghd7 involved flowering regulatory network in rice.