Background
Chloroplast development is coordinately regulated by plastid- and nuclear-encoding genes. Although many regulators have been reported to be involved in chloroplast development, new factors remain to be identified, given the complexity of this process.
Results
In this study, we characterized a rice mutant
lethal albinic seedling 1
(
las1
)form of a 4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl diphosphate reductase (OsHMBPP) that was targeted to the chloroplasts. The
LAS1
mutation caused the albino lethal phenotype in seedlings. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that
las1
were defective in early chloroplast development.
LAS1
is preferentially expressed in leaves, implying its role in controlling chloroplast development. The expression levels of many chloroplast-encoded genes were altered significantly in
las1
. The expression levels of nuclear-encoded gene involved in Chl biosynthesis were also decreased in
las1
. We further investigated plastidic RNA editing in
las1
and found that the edit efficiency of four chloroplast genes were markly altered. Compared with WT,
las1
exhibited defective in biogenesis of chloroplast ribosomes.
Conclusions
Our results show that
LAS1/OsHMBPP
plays an essential role in the early chloroplast development in rice.
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