OsMED25-OsWRI1 Fine-Tunes Fatty Acid Biosynthesis: A Key Strategy via Intron Retention.

OsMED25 fine-tunes fatty acid biosynthesis in rice grains by promoting intron-retention alternative splicing of OsWRI1, generating the inhibitory OsWRI1β variant.

• Why it matters: Post-transcriptional control of grain fatty acid biosynthesis is poorly understood, despite WRI1’s established role in transcriptional activation.
• What they did: The study shows OsWRI1 undergoes intron retention producing OsWRI1α and OsWRI1β; OsMED25 is recruited to a 360-bp intronic region to recruit OsPTB4 and promote retention, with OsWRI1β induction requiring OsMED25 under jasmonic acid signaling.
• The result: OsWRI1α positively regulates fatty acid biosynthesis, whereas OsWRI1β inhibits by disrupting OsWRI1α dimerization and blocking downstream targets including OsACP1 and OsFAD2, linking JA–OsMED25–OsPTB4–OsWRI1 splicing to grain lipid accumulation.

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