"Golden Rice" is a variety of rice engineered to produce beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) to help combat vitamin A deficiency, and it has been predicted that its contribution to alleviating vitamin A deficiency would be substantially improved through even higher beta-carotene content. We hypothesized that the daffodil gene encoding phytoene synthase (psy), one of the two genes used to develop Golden Rice, was the limiting step in beta-carotene accumulation. Through systematic testing of other plant psys, we identified a psy from maize that substantially increased carotenoid accumulation in a model plant system. We went on to develop "Golden Rice 2" introducing this psy in combination with the Erwinia uredovora carotene desaturase (crtI) used to generate the original Golden Rice. We observed an increase in total carotenoids of up to 23-fold (maximum 37 microg/g) compared to the original Golden Rice and a preferential accumulation of beta-carotene.

The recessive rga mutation is able to partially suppress phenotypic defects of the Arabidopsis gibberellin (GA) biosynthetic mutant ga1-3. Defects in stem elongation, flowering time, and leaf abaxial trichome initiation are suppressed by rga. This indicates that RGA is a negative regulator of the GA signal transduction pathway. We have identified 10 additional alleles of rga from a fast-neutron mutagenized ga1-3 population and used them to isolate the RGA gene by genomic subtraction. Our data suggest that RGA may be functioning as a transcriptional regulator. RGA was found to be a member of the VHIID regulatory family, which includes the radial root organizing gene SCARECROW and another GA signal transduction repressor, GAI. RGA and GAI proteins share a high degree of homology, but their N termini are more divergent. The presence of several structural features, including homopolymeric serine and threonine residues, a putative nuclear localization signal, leucine heptad repeats, and an LXXLL motif, indicates that the RGA protein may be a transcriptional regulator that represses the GA response. In support of the putative nuclear localization signal, we demonstrated that a transiently expressed green fluorescent protein-RGA fusion protein is localized to the nucleus in onion epidermal cells. Because the rga mutation abolished the high level of expression of the GA biosynthetic gene GA4 in the ga1-3 mutant background, we conclude that RGA may also play a role in controlling GA biosynthesis.

RGA (for repressor of ga1-3) and SPINDLY (SPY) are likely repressors of gibberellin (GA) signaling in Arabidopsis because the recessive rga and spy mutations partially suppressed the phenotype of the GA-deficient mutant ga1-3. We found that neither rga nor spy altered the GA levels in the wild-type or the ga1-3 background. However, expression of the GA biosynthetic gene GA4 was reduced 26% by the rga mutation, suggesting that partial derepression of the GA response pathway by rga resulted in the feedback inhibition of GA4 expression. The green fluorescent protein (GFP)-RGA fusion protein was localized to nuclei in transgenic Arabidopsis. This result supports the predicted function of RGA as a transcriptional regulator based on sequence analysis. Confocal microscopy and immunoblot analyses demonstrated that the levels of both the GFP-RGA fusion protein and endogenous RGA were reduced rapidly by GA treatment. Therefore, the GA signal appears to derepress the GA signaling pathway by degrading the repressor protein RGA. The effect of rga on GA4 gene expression and the effect of GA on RGA protein level allow us to identify part of the mechanism by which GA homeostasis is achieved.

The recessive rga mutation is able to partially suppress phenotypic defects of the Arabidopsis gibberellin (GA) biosynthetic mutant ga1-3 . Defects in stem elongation, flowering time, and leaf abaxial trichome initiation are suppressed by rga . This indicates that RGA is a negative regulator of the GA signal transduction pathway. We have identified 10 additional alleles of rga from a fast-neutron mutagenized ga1-3 population and used them to isolate the RGA gene by genomic subtraction. Our data suggest that RGA may be functioning as a transcriptional regulator. RGA was found to be a member of the VHIID regulatory family, which includes the radial root organizing gene SCARECROW and another GA signal transduction repressor, GAI . RGA and GAI proteins share a high degree of homology, but their N termini are more divergent. The presence of several structural features, including homopolymeric serine and threonine residues, a putative nuclear localization signal, leucine heptad repeats, and an LXXLL motif, indicates that the RGA protein may be a transcriptional regulator that represses the GA response. In support of the putative nuclear localization signal, we demonstrated that a transiently expressed green fluorescent protein-RGA fusion protein is localized to the nucleus in onion epidermal cells. Because the rga mutation abolished the high level of expression of the GA biosynthetic gene GA4 in the ga1-3 mutant background, we conclude that RGA may also play a role in controlling GA biosynthesis.

SummaryThe GA 1 gene of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes ent.kaurene synthase A (KSA), which catalyzes the first committed step in the biosynthetic pathway of the plant hormone gibberellin (GA). Its location in the GA biosynthetic pathway has led to speculation that KSA regulation is one of the controlling steps. However, because KSA activity is so low that it is only measurable in Arabidopsis siliques, GA1 promoter-GUS reporter gene fusions and quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to examine the expression pattern of GAl. The results from this study indicate that GA 1 gene expression is highly regulated during growth and development, and it is restricted to specific cell types at the sites of expression. GA1 promoter activity is highest in rapidly growing tissues, e.g. shoot apices, root tips, developing flowers and seeds. It is also active in the vascular tissue of some non-growing organs, such as expanded leaves, suggesting that these leaves may be a site of GA synthesis for transport to other organs. It was also found that the first one or two introns in the GA1 gene are required for proper expression. Because of the high degree of regulation, GA1 may act as a gatekeeper, controlling the flow of metabolites into the GA biosynthetic pathway, while the levels of specific bioactive GAs are controlled by other downstream steps.