FRUCTOKINASE-LIKE PROTEIN 1 interacts with TRXz to regulate chloroplast development in rice

Chloroplast genes are transcribed by the plastid-encoded RNA polymerase (PEP) or nucleus-encoded RNA polymerase. FRUCTOKINASE-LIKE PROTEINS (FLNs) are phosphofructokinase-B (PfkB)-type carbohydrate kinases that act as part of the PEP complex; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying FLN activity in rice remain elusive. Previously, we identified and characterized a heat-stress sensitive albino (hsa1) mutant in rice. Map-based cloning revealed that HSA1 encodes a putative OsFLN2. Here, we further demonstrated that knockdown or knockout of the OsFLN1, a close homolog of HSA1/OsFLN2, considerably inhibits chloroplast biogenesis and the fln1 knockout mutants, created by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associate protein 9, exhibit severe albino phenotype and seedling lethality. Moreover, OsFLN1 localizes to the chloroplast. Yeast two-hybrid, pull-down and bimolecular fluorescence complementation experiments revealed that OsFLN1 and HSA1/OsFLN2 interact with THIOREDOXINZ (OsTRXz) to regulate chloroplast development. In agreement with this, knockout of OsTRXz resulted in a similar albino and seedling lethality phenotype to that of the fln1 mutants. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunoblot analysis revealed that the transcription and translation of PEP-dependent genes were strongly inhibited in fln1 and trxz mutants, indicating that loss of OsFLN1, HSA1/OsFLN2, or OsTRXz function perturbs the stability of the transcriptionally active chromosome complex and PEP activity. These results show that OsFLN1 and HSA1/OsFLN2 contribute to chloroplast biogenesis and plant growth.