Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhejiang University
used CRISPR-Cas9gene editing technology to investigate the molecular
mechanism of/OsFtsH2/. The results are reported in/BMC Plant Biology/.

At present, there are nine filamentation temperature-sensitive H
(FtsH) proteins found inrice, but their roles remain unknown. Thus, the
researchers developed several/osftsh2/ knockout mutants using CRISPR-Cas9.

Results showed that all the mutants exhibited striking albino leaves and
were not able to survive through the stage of three leaves./OsFtsH2/was
found in the chloroplast and particularly expressed in green tissues.
Furthermore, it was also observed that the mutants were not able to
develop normal chloroplasts and had lost photosynthetic autotrophic
capacity. Further analysis showed that many biological processes,
especially the photosynthesis-related pathways were significantly
affected in the mutants.

Based on the results, it was revealed that/OsFtsH2/is vital in rice
chloroplast development.

The essential roles of OsFtsH2 in developing the chloroplast of rice |
BMC Plant Biology | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
[bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com]