Jul 2026· Advancement of science· 0 citations· 52 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This study identified sidt1, a semi‐dwarf, high‐tillering mutant exhibiting a compact architecture and enhanced lodging resistance, and identified SiDT1 as a key regulator of plant architecture and establish a semi‐dwarf ideotype reminiscent of the rice Green Revolution.
Abstract
ABSTRACT Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is a drought‐tolerant C4 cereal that grows on marginal lands and serves as a nutrient‐rich food for millions in Asia and Africa. Despite its resilience and nutritional value, the genetic basis underlying plant height variation in foxtail millet remains incompletely understood, thereby constraining the effective implementation of semi‐dwarfing strategies analogous to those that drove the Green Revolution in major cereals. This study identified sidt1, a semi‐dwarf, high‐tillering mutant exhibiting a compact architecture and enhanced lodging resistance. It is demonstrated that SiDT1 encodes a GA3‐oxidase orthologous to rice D18/XIAOWEI. A single A‐to‐T mutation disrupted its catalytic function, reducing bioactive gibberellin biosynthesis. CRISPR‐Cas9 knockout lines recapitulated the sidt1 phenotype, confirming SiDT1’s functional role. Combined transcriptomic profiling and SiD53 immunoblot analysis indicated that strigolactone‐related signaling is perturbed in sidt1, in agreement with its enhanced tillering phenotype. Notably, under high‐density planting conditions, sidt1 maintained grain yield and quality while exhibiting superior lodging resistance. These findings identify SiDT1 as a key regulator of plant architecture and establish a semi‐dwarf ideotype reminiscent of the rice Green Revolution, providing a valuable genetic resource for high‐density and mechanized foxtail millet production.
These results provide new insights into HvDEP1′s role in both shoot and root systems and demonstrate that precise CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing can rapidly introduce dwarfism while revealing trade-offs in other agronomic traits.
Jovana Eskildsen, Tobias Hanak, R. Hood-Nowotny et al.· International Journal of Pla...· 0 citations
SUMMARY The distinctive spike‐shaped inflorescence architecture in temperate cereals is governed by a complex interplay of genetic factors, including the orthologous WHEAT FRIZZY PANICLE (WFZP) and barley COMPOSITUM 2 (COM2), whose products belong to the APETALA 2/ ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) family of transcription factors. However, the precise regulatory mechanism driving their function as well as the influence of allele dosage on spike formation and fertility remain to be elucidated specifically in wheat. A comprehensive analysis of the phenotype and gene function was conducted to unravel the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the peculiar rattail 1 (rtt1) barley phenotype. In wheat, new WFZP alleles were generated, including knockouts and in‐frame mutations in all three homoeoalleles. Our genetic analysis revealed that the rtt1 phenotype is caused by a conserved COM2 mutation. The subsequent analysis of the transcriptome data elucidated the molecular mechanisms of rtt1 for spikelet meristem identity, underscored by a predicted compromised DNA‐binding capacity of rtt1. The combination of our newly generated mutant alleles in wheat has revealed the intricate regulation of inflorescence, grain, and root development, which is controlled by WFZP. This provides evidence of the indispensable role of functional WFZP proteins, with a particular focus on the WFZP‐B allele, which has hitherto received limited attention. This study also demonstrates the allele‐specific impact of WFZP on root development, influencing branching and length. The findings of this study demonstrate that COM2 and WFZP exert dosage‐dependent regulatory influence on the inflorescence and root architecture in Triticeae cereals.
C. Hertig, R. Koppolu, V. H. Rabesquine Nogueira et al.· The Plant Journal· 0 citations
ABSTRACT Breeding crops with robust disease resistance often compromises yield, a persistent challenge in agricultural improvement. We report that modifying cell wall architecture through a xylan‐specific glycosyltransferase successfully breaks this trade‐off in wheat. TaXAX1, a pathogen‐induced member of the glycosyltransferase (GT)61 family, catalyses arabinose modification of xylan and is predominantly localized to the Golgi apparatus. CRISPR/Cas9 knockout mutants of Taxax1 exhibited enhanced susceptibility to three major fungal diseases: Fusarium head blight (FHB), Fusarium crown rot (FCR) and stripe rust. Conversely, overexpression of TaXAX1 significantly enhanced resistance to all three pathogens concurrently. Remarkably, this multi‐disease resistance was achieved without any reduction in grain yield. Mechanistically, TaXAX1 mediates cell wall fortification by increasing xylan arabinose modification arabinosylation, upregulating the phenylpropanoid pathway and enhancing the deposition of lignin, cellulose and phenolic cross‐linkers. This resulted in a thicker and more reinforced secondary cell wall, which also translated into superior stem strength. Our study identifies TaXAX1 as a master regulator of cell wall remodelling and provides a compelling strategy for designing wheat varieties with integrated resilience against multiple diseases and environmental stresses, while safeguarding yield potential.
Shufang Sun, Chunhui Li, Zehua Wang et al.· Plant Biotechnology Journal· 0 citations
Legumes include some of the world’s most significant crop species, such as cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), a subsistence crop widely grown in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their importance, legume crop improvement is hindered by a lack of high-resolution expression data, particularly for reproductive tissues and cell types. Here, we report on VigExp, a tool for visualising cowpea gene expression datasets. We demonstrate its utility across a range of vegetative and reproductive cell types of varieties IT97K-499-35 and IT86D-1010, which exhibit 93.75% protein sequence conservation and are amenable to stable transformation. This includes previously published transcriptomes of vegetative, floral and seed tissues, combined with developmentally staged male and female reproductive tissues. Also integrated are novel transcriptomes of laser-captured cell types covering reproductive development from meiosis to early embryo formation post-fertilisation. Spatial expression patterns and transcript levels can be visualised through an electronic fluorescent pictograph (eFP) browser. Validated by RT-qPCR, in situ hybridisation, transgenic, and CRISPR gene editing analyses, the predictive accuracy of VigExp matches prior cowpea functional study observations. Critical genes for nodule development and regulation were also identified and their expression patterns established in cowpea. Novel reference genes, constitutively expressed gene promoters for visualisation markers/gene-editing, and tissue- and cell-specific gene promoters for targeting these regions, were identified. The A-type cyclin, VuTAM2, was also identified, with a critical role in male meiosis established. Collectively, VigExp represents an adaptable and updatable resource to support crop improvement in cowpea and other legumes, which are often highly syntenic with respect to genome composition.
H. Su, Danielle Mazurkiewicz, Nial R. Gursanscky et al.· bioRxiv· 0 citations
The Green Revolution of the 1960s significantly boosted cereal yields but incurred substantial environmental costs due to overreliance on chemical fertilizer inputs; thus, future agricultural sustainability demands improved nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE). The semi-dwarf Green Revolution varieties (GRVs) characterized by elevated DELLA protein accumulation introduce a fundamental trade-off, increasing lodging resistance and harvest index at the expense of diminished biomass and grain productivity per plant, and require high nitrogen fertilizer inputs to achieve maximum yield potential under high planting density. Here we show that gibberellin (GA)-bound GA-INSENSITIVE DWARF1 (GID1) induces multi-level conformational changes in DELLA protein, affecting its N-terminal DELLA and VHYN/DPT/S and C-terminal VVLV and SAW motifs, thereby facilitating recognition by the SKP1-CULLIN-F-box (SCF) ubiquitin ligase complex and subsequent proteasomal degradation. We also performed structure-guided engineering of the rice SLENDER RICE1 (SLR1)-GID1-GID2 complex and created a series of dwarf alleles exhibiting a continuous spectrum of plant heights in elite cultivars. Notably, the dominant alleles slr1Y94A and slr1Y580A achieved superior yield and enhanced NUE over conventional sd1-containing GRVs. Reprogramming DELLA turnover thus enables to break the long-standing trade-off between high yield and fertilizer dependency, offering a strategy toward a more sustainable and productive Green Revolution. By structure-guided engineering of DELLA to modulate its degradation, Xue et al. break the long-standing yield-fertilizer dependency trade-off, achieving improved nitrogen-use efficiency and grain yield beyond conventional Green Revolution varieties.
Chongyu Xue, Shuang Zhang, Lihao Wan et al.· Nature Communications· 0 citations
Introduction Cuticular wax plays a crucial role in drought tolerance. However, the regulatory mechanisms controlling cuticular wax biosynthesis and the drought response in rapeseed are not well understood. Methods and Results In this study, we identified a glossy mutant, hy7201, in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). Compared to the wild-type ‘HY7201’, hy7201 exhibited a significant reduction in total cuticular wax content, altered composition, and decreased crystal density, along with a significant increase in cuticle permeability. Genetic analysis revealed that the glossy phenotype of the hy7201 mutant is controlled by a single dominant gene. Through bulked segregant analysis coupled with next-generation sequencing (BSA-seq) of waxy and glossy pools derived from F1 individuals of the self-crossed hy7201 population, BnaA09G0721400ZS, the homolog gene of AtCER1, was identified as a key candidate gene. This gene encodes a very-long-chain aldehyde decarbonylase, which contributes to the differences in leaf cuticular wax accumulation between the wild-type ‘HY7201’ and the glossy mutant ‘hy7201’. To validate the key genes involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis and characterize the molecular features under natural drought conditions in glossy plants, we performed an integrated analysis of the leaf transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome using KEGG enrichment, Pearson correlation, and two-way orthogonal partial least squares (O2PLS) methods with three biological replicates. The genes CER1 (BnaA09G0721400ZS) and its paralog CER1-2 (BnaA09G0698500ZS) were significantly downregulated at both the transcriptional and protein levels. Additionally, they exhibited significant negative correlations with differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) in glossy plants under drought stress. The multi-omics approach uncovered that pathways related to cutin, suberin, and wax biosynthesis, as well as ABC transporters, glucosinolate biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, and arginine and proline metabolism, significantly contribute to the glossy plant’s response to drought. Discussion These results suggest that the drought response in the glossy mutant involves not only a defective cuticular barrier but also extensive metabolic and signaling reprogramming. This insight could facilitate the identification of genes related to cuticular wax biosynthesis and drought stress response, which could be utilized in molecular breeding programs to enhance drought tolerance in rapeseed. Consequently, this offers a promising approach for developing more sustainable farming methods amid environmental challenges.
Lei Lei, Xianmin Meng, Weirong Wang et al.· Frontiers in Plant Science· 0 citations