%A Xinyong Liu, Xichun Zhang, Ruijie Cao, Guiai Jiao, Shikai Hu, Gaoneng Shao, Zhonghua Sheng, Lihong Xie, Shaoqing Tang, Xiangjin Wei and Peisong Hu %T CDE4 encodes a pentatricopeptide repeat protein involved in chloroplast RNA splicing and affects chloroplast development under low-temperature conditions in rice %0 Journal Article %D 2021 %J J Integr Plant Biol %R 10.1111/jipb.13147 %P 1724-1739 %V 63 %N 10 %U {https://www.jipb.net/CN/abstract/article_81708.shtml} %8 2021-10-01 %X Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins play important roles in the post-transcriptional modification of organellar RNAs in plants. However, the function of most PPR proteins remains unknown. Here, we characterized the rice (Oryza sativa L.) chlorophyll deficient 4 (cde4) mutant which exhibits an albino phenotype during early leaf development, with decreased chlorophyll contents and abnormal chloroplasts at low-temperature (20°C). Positional cloning revealed that CDE4 encodes a P-type PPR protein localized in chloroplasts. In the cde4 mutant, plastid-encoded polymerase (PEP)-dependent transcript levels were significantly reduced, but transcript levels of nuclear-encoded genes were increased compared to wild-type plants at 20°C. CDE4 directly binds to the transcripts of the chloroplast genes rpl2, ndhA, and ndhB. Intron splicing of these transcripts was defective in the cde4 mutant at 20°C, but was normal at 32°C. Moreover, CDE4 interacts with the guanylate kinase VIRESCENT 2 (V2); overexpression of V2 enhanced CDE4 protein stability, thereby rescuing the cde4 phenotype at 20°C. Our results suggest that CDE4 participates in plastid RNA splicing and plays an important role in rice chloroplast development under low-temperature conditions.