Genetius

The study used CRISPR/Cas9 to create rice lines with one to three tandem copies of the OsMADS18 gene and confirmed copy-number through high‑throughput qPCR. Incremental increases in OsMADS18 copy number produced proportional rises in transcript levels and corresponding enhancements in leaf blade and culm length, showing that gene dosage can be leveraged to fine‑tune agronomic traits.

An induced mutant line of the rice cultivar Samba Mahsuri shows broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial blight, linked to a novel missense SNP (S84P) in the OsMAPK6 gene on chromosome 6. Multi-omics analyses indicate that this mutation confers constitutive immunity, likely through reduced brassinosteroid signaling, offering a new resistance allele for rice breeding.

The study performed integrative small RNA sequencing and transcriptomic profiling across ten anther developmental stages of Kitaake rice to map sRNA‑related gene expression and phasiRNA production. It uncovered previously undescribed post‑meiotic 21‑nt and 24‑nt phasiRNA loci with distinct accumulation patterns and nucleotide compositions, suggesting diverse biogenesis mechanisms and specialized roles in pollen development.