韩国延世大学教授李仁锡（音译）领导的研究小组首次揭开了全球4大粮食作物之一的水稻基因之间相互作用之谜。
研究小组称：水稻有4万多个基因，他们已对其中的2万个基因进行了分析，并绘制完成揭示基因之间相互作用的“水稻基因网络图谱”。在这一过程中，他们还发现对水稻免疫系统产生核心作用的3个基因。
上述研究结果已刊载于权威科学杂志美国《国家科学院院刊》(PNAS)网络版。(生物谷Bioon.com)
doi:10.1073/pnas.1110384108
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Genetic dissection of the biotic stress response using a genome-scale gene network for rice
Lee, Insuk; Seo, Young-Su; Coltrane, Dusica; Hwang, Sohyun; Oh, Taeyun; Marcotte, Edward M.; Ronald, Pamela C.
Rice is a staple food for one-half the world's population and a model for other monocotyledonous species. Thus, efficient approaches for identifying key genes controlling simple or complex traits in rice have important biological, agricultural, and economic consequences. Here, we report on the construction of RiceNet, an experimentally tested genome-scale gene network for a monocotyledonous species. Many different datasets, derived from five different organisms including plants, animals, yeast, and humans, were evaluated, and 24 of the most useful were integrated into a statistical framework that allowed for the prediction of functional linkages between pairs of genes. Genes could be linked to traits by using guilt-by-association, predicting gene attributes on the basis of network neighbors. We applied RiceNet to an important agronomic trait, the biotic stress response. Using network guilt-by-association followed by focused protein–protein interaction assays, we identified and validated, in planta, two positive regulators, LOC_Os01g70580 (now Regulator of XA21; ROX1) and LOC_Os02g21510 (ROX2), and one negative regulator, LOC_Os06g12530 (ROX3). These proteins control resistance mediated by rice XA21, a pattern recognition receptor. We also showed that RiceNet can accurately predict gene function in another major monocotyledonous crop species, maize. RiceNet thus enables the identification of genes regulating important crop traits, facilitating engineering of pathways critical to crop productivity.
