Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.
Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
Nat Plants. 2021 Mar;7(3):287-294. doi: 10.1038/s41477-021-00858-5. Epub 2021 Feb 22.
Several yield-related traits selected during crop domestication and improvement are associated with increases in meristem size, which is controlled by CLE peptide signals in the CLAVATA-WUSCHEL pathway. Here, we engineered quantitative variation for yield-related traits in maize by making weak promoter alleles of CLE genes, and a null allele of a newly identified partially redundant compensating CLE gene, using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. These strategies increased multiple maize grain-yield-related traits, supporting the enormous potential for genomic editing in crop enhancement.
在作物驯化和改良过程中选择的几个与产量相关的性状与分生组织大小的增加有关，分生组织大小由 CLAVATA-WUSCHEL 途径中的 CLE 肽信号控制。在这里，我们通过使用 CRISPR-Cas9 基因组编辑技术构建 CLE 基因的弱启动子等位基因和新鉴定的部分冗余补偿 CLE 基因的无效等位基因，对玉米与产量相关的性状进行了定量变异的工程设计。这些策略增加了多个与玉米粒产量相关的性状，为作物改良中的基因组编辑提供了巨大的潜力。
