Watt Calum, Zhou Gaofeng, Li Chengdao
Western Crop Genetics Alliance, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia.
Front Plant Sci. 2020 Aug 18;11:1273. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.01273. eCollection 2020.
Predicted climate change is widely cited to significantly reduce yields of the major cereal crop species in a period where demand is rapidly rising due to a growing global population. This requires exhaustive research to develop genetic resources in order to address the expected production deficiencies which will largely be driven by abiotic stress. Modification of multiple genes is an approach that can address the predicted challenges; however, it is time-consuming and costly to modify multiple genes simultaneously. Transcription factors represent a group of proteins regulating multiple genes simultaneously and are therefore promising targets to concurrently improve multiple traits concurrently, such as abiotic stress tolerance and grain size (a contributor to yield). Many studies have identified the complex role that transcription factors of multiple families have contributed toward abiotic stress tolerance or grain size, although research addressing both simultaneously is in its infancy despite its potential significance for cereal crop improvement. Here we discuss the potential role that transcription factors may contribute toward improving cereal crop productivity under adverse environmental conditions and offer research objectives that need to be addressed before the modification of transcription factors becomes routinely used to positively manipulate multiple target traits.
预计气候变化将导致主要谷类作物产量大幅下降，而此时由于全球人口增长，对粮食的需求正在迅速上升。这就需要进行详尽的研究以开发遗传资源，从而应对预计将主要由非生物胁迫导致的产量不足问题。修改多个基因是应对预计挑战的一种方法；然而，同时修改多个基因既耗时又昂贵。转录因子是一类能够同时调节多个基因的蛋白质，因此有望成为同时改善多个性状（如非生物胁迫耐受性和粒重，粒重是产量的一个影响因素）的目标。许多研究已经确定了多个家族的转录因子在非生物胁迫耐受性或粒重方面所起的复杂作用，尽管同时针对这两个方面的研究尚处于起步阶段，但其对谷类作物改良具有潜在的重要意义。在此，我们讨论转录因子在不利环境条件下对提高谷类作物生产力可能发挥的作用，并提出在转录因子修饰被常规用于正向调控多个目标性状之前需要解决的研究目标。
