Abstract
Photosystem I (PSI) cyclic electron transport is essential for photosynthesis and photoprotection in Arabidopsis. Based on its physiological significance, function of PSI cyclic electron transport is likely to be conserved in rice. In fact, the related genes are conserved between Arabidopsis and rice.
PSI cyclic electron transport consists of two pathways: the NDH-dependent and PGR5-dependent pathways. The Arabidopsis gene CRR6 (CHLORORESPIRATORY REDUCTION 6) is essential for the NDH pathway and the crr6 mutant cannot accumulate the NDH complex. CRR6 is also conserved in rice (OsCRR6) and we obtained its knockout line. Consistent with Arabidopsis crr6, rice crr6 was deficient in the accumulation of the NDH complex. From these results, we conclude that the function of CRR6 and the NDH complex is conserved in rice. We also constructed RNAi lines of rice homologs of PGR5 (OsPGR5).
