Journal of Energy Bioscience 2025, Vol.16, No.5, 248-262 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/jeb 255 8.2 Case 2: improving starch synthesis in rice and maize Scientists have built a complex network that controls starch synthesis in rice endosperm. It includes many transcription factors and enzyme genes. Each enzyme gene can be controlled by several transcription factors. By adjusting these regulators, they can change the ratio of amylose to amylopectin. When OsSPL7 and OsB3 were knocked out, rice tasted better and cooked better, without changing grain shape (Huang et al., 2025). Editing starch synthesis genes can also increase resistant starch (RS). When SSIIIa and SSIIIb lost their function, RS went up by about 10%. More mutations made it even higher. But too much RS may affect yield or texture, so a balance is needed between health and productivity (Figure 2). In maize, overexpressing ZmCBM48-1 raised starch content and changed the structure of the endosperm (Peng et al., 2022; Dong et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2024). Figure 2 Yield-related traits were significantly affected in eight selected RS lines. (a) Plant morphologies of eight selected RS lines, bars = 20 cm. (b-c) Grain yield per plant (b) and 1000-seed weight (c) of eight selected RS lines in Beijing. (d-e) Total RS (d) and AAC yield (e) per plant of eight selected RS lines. (f) Model of relative RS contents, AAC, PT, and grain yield in the wild type (WT), ssIIIa, ssIIIa ssIIIb (rs4), rs4 ssIIa, and rs4 sbeI ssIVb mutants. In (b-c) values are means ± s.d. (n = 10 plants), in (d–e) values are means ± s.d. (n = 3 biological replicates) and different letters at the top of each column indicate a significant difference at P < 0.05 determined by Tukey's HSD test (Adopted from Wang et al., 2024)
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