Down-regulated expression of OsDCL3b affects small RNA biogenesis and panicle development in rice

Two types of small (18-24 nt) non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have been found to exist widely in higher plants. OsDCL3b has just been reported to process the 24-nt phased small RNAs in rice, which are preferentially expressed in panicle. In this study, we find that down-regulated expression of OsDCL3b leads to lower pollen sterility and seed setting rate, which results in decreased grain yield per plant in rice. Next, small RNA and mRNA sequencing were performed to study the decrease of pollen fertility and seed setting rate. 942 differentially expressed genes were identified, and some of them have already been known to be involved in rice panicle development. Our results indicate that there is a close correlation between small RNA and rice yield. Overall design: RNA-seq and small RNA-seq from wild-type and dcl3b knockdown mutant rice.