中国农业科学院作物科学研究所Long Mao等研究人员合作发现，对昼夜节律时钟基因TaPRR95进行基因组编辑可促进小麦花序梗的生长和抽穗期的确定。这一研究成果于2024年6月6日在线发表在国际学术期刊《遗传学报》上。

据悉，植株高度和抽穗期是小麦（Triticum aestivum L.）的重要农艺性状，会影响最终的籽粒产量。在小麦中，人们对影响农艺性状的假响应调节因子（PRR）基因的了解十分有限。

附：英文原文

Title: Genome-editing of a circadian clock gene TaPRR95 facilitates wheat peduncle growth and heading date

Author: Shuaifeng Geng a, Aili Li a, Long Mao a

Issue&Volume: 2024/06/06

Abstract: Plant height and heading date are important agronomic traits in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) that affect final grain yield. In wheat, knowledge of pseudo-response regulator (PRR) genes on agronomic traits is limited. Here, we identify a wheat TaPRR95 gene by genome-wide association study (GWAS) to be associated with plant height. Triple allele mutant plants produced by CRISPR/Cas9 show increased plant height, particularly at the peduncle, with an earlier heading date. The longer peduncle is mainly caused by the increased cell elongation at its upper section, whilst the early heading date is accompanied with elevated expression of flowering genes, such as TaFT and TaCO1. A peduncle-specific transcriptome analysis reveals up-regulated photosynthesis genes and down-regulated IAA/Aux genes for auxin signaling in prr95aabbdd plants that may act as a regulatory mechanism to promote robust plant growth. A haplotype analysis identifies a TaPRR95-B haplotype (Hap2) to be closely associated with reduced plant height and increased thousand-grain weight. Moreover, the Hap2 frequency is higher in cultivars than that in landraces, suggesting the artificial selection on the allele during wheat breeding. These findings suggest that TaPRR95 is a new regulator for plant height and heading date, thereby providing an important target for wheat yield improvement.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2024.05.011

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1673852724001243