Rice is one of the main food crops in China. Its growth process requires a lot of water. Optimizing its water-saving and drought resistance traits is related to the "rice bowl" of the people. Recently, the team led by luolijun, chief scientist of Shanghai agricultural biology gene center, recently discovered a gene osringzf1 that can make rice more drought resistant. This gene reduces cell water loss by reducing water channels on cells and improves the water retention capacity of plants under drought conditions. The results were published online in the Journal of plant biotechnology, an internationally renowned Journal of Botany. "We have done a long-term genetic study on drought resistance, and compared a large number of drought conditions with normal conditions to find the genes regulating drought resistance. Osringzf1 was found on the fourth chromosome of rice through fine mapping." Liuhongyan, corresponding author of the article and associate researcher of Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center, said. Chenshoujun, the first author and doctor of joint cultivation between Shanghai agricultural biology gene center and Huazhong Agricultural University, introduced that overexpression of the gene (i.e. increasing the gene) enhanced the resistance of rice to drought and salt stress. On the contrary, knocking out the gene made rice more sensitive to drought. Under drought conditions, the yield of rice overexpressing this gene was more than 10% higher than that of the control group, thus reducing the yield loss caused by drought. The researchers further analyzed and revealed the mechanism of drought resistance regulation, which can be related to ospip2; 1 and other six aquaporins, binding in ospip2; 1 plays an important role in the degradation process. Liuhongyan explained: "the gene will mark aquaporins, and the marked aquaporins will be brought to the proteasome for degradation." Aquaporins are "water pores" in cell membranes, which provide channels for water transport across cells. Water will enter the intercellular space through aquaporins, and then from the space to the stomata under the leaf surface, and then evaporate into the air under the transpiration. Therefore, when osringzf1 gene increases, the "water hole" of rice decreases, and the loss of water naturally decreases. Luo Lijun's team has collected rice germplasm resources all over the world since the end of the 20th century, built a rice functional gene resource bank in China, established water-saving and drought resistant rice theory and breeding system, and popularized the new water-saving and drought resistant rice varieties represented by "Hanyou 73" in large areas in production. (Xinhua News Agency)