Chinese Team Builds World's First Three-Dimensional Spatiotemporal Cell Atlas Covering the Entire Rice Life Cycle

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On the evening of October 6, the latest rice research findings, completed through the division of labor and collaboration among multiple Chinese research institutions, were published online in the international academic journal Cell. The Chinese research team has, for the first time globally, constructed a three-dimensional spatiotemporal cell atlas covering the entire process of rice from seed germination to flowering and fruiting, and integrated genome sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and spatial transcriptome sequencing data, providing new research resources for studying rice growth and development mechanisms and improving grain quality.

According to seed industry researchers, this scientific achievement, by clarifying the locations where specific functional genes are expressed throughout the entire growth period of rice and in different tissues, will open up a new pathway for precision-designed breeding to rapidly achieve high and stable yields.

In addition, Chinese researchers have also built a database and a rice single-cell foundation model available for researchers worldwide, supporting gene queries, spatial expression display, and comparative analysis. Researchers can focus on the genes they are interested in, view their expression across different tissues and developmental stages, and further determine the direction for experimental validation. With this atlas and these data, researchers can gain a new understanding of the relationship between superior rice traits and gene expression regulation, ultimately understanding how a rice plant grows from seed germination to flowering and fruiting.

Previously, when trying to improve a certain trait of rice, directly altering a specific gene might affect multiple traits. Now, with the help of the atlas and model, experts are expected to carry out targeted optimization, greatly reducing the adverse chain reactions of "attending to one thing and losing another," exploring more targeted regulatory strategies, and achieving "point-and-shoot" precision.