The rice annexin gene <i>OsAnn5</i> is involved in cold stress tolerance at the seedling stage

Abstract

Annexins exist widely in plants as multigene families and play critical roles in stress responses and a range of cellular processes. This study provides a comprehensive account of the cloning and functional characterization of the rice annexin gene <i>OsAnn5</i>. The findings reveal that a cold stress treatment at the seedling stage of rice induced <i>OsAnn5</i> expression. GUS staining assay indicated that the expression of <i>OsAnn5</i> was non tissue-specific and was detected in almost all rice tissues. Subcellular localization indicated that <i>OsAnn5-</i>GFP (green fluorescent protein) signals were found in the endoplasmic reticulum apparatus. Compared with wild type rice, knocking out <i>OsAnn5</i> using the CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated proteins) mediated genome editing resulted in sensitivity to cold treatments. These results indicate that <i>OsAnn5</i> is involved in cold stress tolerance at the seedling stage.