RNA demethylation increases the yield and biomass of rice and potato plants in field trials

• Published in: Nature biotechnology 2021-12, Vol.39 (12), p.1581-1588
• Main Authors: Yu, Qiong, Liu, Shun, Yu, Lu, Xiao, Yu, Zhang, Shasha, Wang, Xueping, Xu, Yingying, Yu, Hong, Li, Yulong, Yang, Junbo, Tang, Jun, Duan, Hong-Chao, Wei, Lian-Huan, Zhang, Haiyan, Wei, Jiangbo, Tang, Qian, Wang, Chunling, Zhang, Wutong, Wang, Ye, Song, Peizhe, Lu, Qiang, Zhang, Wei, Dong, Shunqing, Song, Baoan, He, Chuan, Jia, Guifang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/449/2653; 631/61/447; Agriculture; Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO - metabolism; Analysis; Bioinformatics; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Cell growth; Cell proliferation; Cell size; Cereal crops; Chromatin; Crop yield; Crop yields; Demethylation; Drought resistance; Gene expression; Genetic aspects; Genetic engineering; Genetic transcription; Growth; Humans; Identification and classification; Life Sciences; Meristems; Methods; Methylation; N6-methyladenosine; Oryza; Photosynthesis; Plant growth; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Ploidy; Polyadenine; Potatoes; Ribonucleic acid; Rice; RNA; RNA, Plant - genetics; rRNA; Solanum tuberosum - genetics; Transcription activation; Transgenic plants
• ISSN: 1087-0156; 1546-1696
• DOI: 10.1038/s41587-021-00982-9

RNA N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A) modifications are essential in plants. Here, we show that transgenic expression of the human RNA demethylase FTO in rice caused a more than threefold increase in grain yield under greenhouse conditions. In field trials, transgenic expression of FTO in rice and potato caused ~50% increases in yield and biomass. We demonstrate that the presence of FTO stimulates root meristem cell proliferation and tiller bud formation and promotes photosynthetic efficiency and drought tolerance but has no effect on mature cell size, shoot meristem cell proliferation, root diameter, plant height or ploidy. FTO mediates substantial m 6 A demethylation (around 7% of demethylation in poly(A) RNA and around 35% decrease of m 6 A in non-ribosomal nuclear RNA) in plant RNA, inducing chromatin openness and transcriptional activation. Therefore, modulation of plant RNA m 6 A methylation is a promising strategy to dramatically improve plant growth and crop yield. Rice and potato plants are more productive after epitranscriptome engineering.