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Breeding by Design for Functional Rice with Genome Editing Technologies

Breeding by Design for Functional Rice with Genome Editing Technologies

Published on: January 3, 2025

Rapid GC content evolution in rice through GC-biased gene conversion and selection for translation efficiency.

Ning Jiang¹, Dongmei Yin², Shujun Ou³

¹Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. jiangn@msu.edu.

Nature Communications

|July 7, 2026

Summary

GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) favors GC alleles during recombination. This study finds GC content is declining in rice, suggesting mutations are more influential than gBGC in altering genomic GC levels.

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Area of Science:

Genomics
Molecular Evolution
Plant Biology

Background:

GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) is a mechanism that increases GC content during recombination.
gBGC's role in plants is less understood compared to yeast and animals.
gBGC is generally more effective in outcrossing species.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the presence and impact of gBGC in rice (Oryza sativa).
To understand the factors shaping GC content in rice's coding and noncoding regions.
To evaluate the influence of outcrossing on GC content in rice.

Main Methods:

Analysis of GC content in coding and noncoding sequences of rice.
Correlation of GC content with recombination frequency.
Assessment of GC content changes in relation to outcrossing levels.

Main Results:

GC content in rice noncoding sequences correlates with recombination frequency.
GC content in coding regions is influenced by recombination and selection for GC-rich codons.
Both rice and its wild progenitor show declining GC content.
No evidence suggests full outcrossing leads to increased GC content in rice.

Conclusions:

Mutations appear to be a more dominant force than gBGC in altering GC content in rice.
GC content is predicted to continue declining in rice and related species.
The effectiveness of gBGC in plants may be less significant than previously thought, or other factors are overriding its effect.