Copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) are common heavy metal pollutants. When Cd and excessive Cu accumulate in plants, plant growth is reduced. Our previous study showed that Germin-like proteins (GLPs), which exist in tandem on chromosomes, are a class of soluble glycoproteins that respond to Cu stress. In this study, hydroponic cultures were carried out to investigate the effect of GLP on Cd and Cu tolerance and accumulation in rice. The results showed that knockout of a single OsGLP8-2 gene or ten OsGLP genes (OsGLP8-2 to OsGLP8-11) resulted in a similar sensitivity to Cd and Cu toxicity. When subjected to Cu and Cd stress, the glp8-2 and glp8-(2-11) mutants displayed a more sensitive phenotype based on the plant height, root length, and dry biomass of the rice seedlings. Correspondingly, Cu and Cd concentrations in the glp8-2 and glp8-(2-11) mutants were significantly higher than those in the wild-type (WT) and OsGLP8-2-overexpressing line. However, Cu and Cd accumulation in the cell wall was the opposite. Furthermore, we determined lignin accumulation. The overexpressing-OsGLP8-2 line had a higher lignin accumulation in the shoot and root cell walls than those of the WT, glp8-2, and glp8-(2-11). The expression of lignin synthesis genes in the OsGLP8-2-overexpressing line was significantly higher than that in the WT, glp8-2, and glp8-(2-11). The SOD activity of OsGLP8-2, Diaminobe-nzidine (DAB), propidium iodide (PI) staining, and Malondialdehyde (MDA) content determination suggested that OsGLP8-2 is involved in heavy metal-induced antioxidant defense in rice. Our findings clearly suggest that OsGLPs participate in responses to heavy metal stress by lignin deposition and antioxidant defense capacity in rice, and OsGLP8-2 may play a major role in the tandem repeat gene clusters of chromosome 8 under heavy metal stress conditions.

Peach (Prunus persica) landrace has typical regional characteristics, strong environmental adaptability, and contains many valuable genes that provide the foundation for breeding excellent varieties. Therefore, it is necessary to assemble the genomes of specific landraces to facilitate the localization and utilization of these genes. Here, we de novo assembled a high-quality genome from an ancient blood-fleshed Chinese landrace Tianjin ShuiMi (TJSM) that originated from the China North Plain. The assembled genome size was 243.5 Mb with a contig N50 of 23.7 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 28.6 Mb. Compared with the reported peach genomes, our assembled TJSM genome had the largest number of specific structural variants (SVs) and long terminal repeat-retrotransposons (LTR-RTs). Among the LTR-RTs with the potential to regulate their host genes, we identified a 6688 bp LTR-RT (named it blood TE) in the promoter of NAC transcription factor-encoding PpBL, a gene regulating peach blood-flesh formation. The blood TE was not only co-separated with the blood-flesh phenotype but also associated with fruit maturity date advancement and different intensities of blood-flesh color formation. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanism underlying the development of the blood-flesh color and determination of fruit maturity date and highlight the potential of the TJSM genome to mine more variations related to agronomic traits in peach fruit.