OsNF-YB1, a rice endosperm-specific gene, is essential for cell proliferation in endosperm development

• OsNF-YB1 is a confirmed NF-Y gene in rice.
• OsNF-YB1 is highly expressed at the early stages of seed development in rice.
• Interference of OsNF-YB1 results in reduced cell number of endosperm.
• Repression of OsNF-YB1 results in differential expression of the genes of cell cycle.

Cell cycle regulators are crucial for normal endosperm development and seed size determination. However, how the cell cycle related genes regulate endosperm development remains unclear. In this study, we reported a rice Nuclear Factor Y (NF-Y) gene OsNF-YB1, which was also identified as an endosperm-specific gene. Transcriptional profiling and promoter analysis revealed that OsNF-YB1 was highly expressed at the early stages of rice endosperm development (5–7 DAP, days after pollination). Repression of OsNF-YB1 resulted in differential expression of the genes in cell cycle pathway, which caused abnormal seeds with defected embryo and endosperm. Basic cytological analysis demonstrated that the reduced endosperm cell numbers disintegrated with the development of those abnormal seeds in OsNF-YB1 RNAi plants. Taken together, these results suggested that the endosperm-specific gene OsNF-YB1 might be a cell cycle regulator and played a role in maintaining the endosperm cell proliferation.