Maize Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/National Engineering Laboratory of Wheat and Maize/Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Maize in Northern Yellow-huai River Plain, Ministry of Agriculture, Jinan 250100, China.
Maize Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/National Engineering Laboratory of Wheat and Maize/Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Maize in Northern Yellow-huai River Plain, Ministry of Agriculture, Jinan 250100, China.
Gene. 2021 Aug 15;793:145749. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2021.145749. Epub 2021 May 30.
Maize ZmGS5 was reported to be positively associated with kernel-related traits, however, its regulatory mechanism on plant development and seed size remains unknown. In this study, ZmGS5 was demonstrated to be widely expressed in various maize tissues with the highest expression level in developing embryos, indicating its critical roles in early kernel development process. The ZmGS5 protein was subcellularly localized to both the nucleus and cytoplasm. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing ZmGS5 under the control of either the constitutive maize Ubiquitin1 promotor or native ZmGS5 promoter resulted in increased plant size, biomass, seed size and weight, although no significant difference was observed between transgenic lines harboring the two constructs. In contrast, the antisense-ZmGS5 transgene resulted in opposite phenotypes. Our cytological data suggested that ZmGS5 enlarged petal size through enhancing cell expansion. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis indicated that ZmGS5 might enhance cell expansion and grain filling by upregulating expression levels of particular EXPA or SWEET genes. Collectively, these findings help us further understand the biological function and regulatory mechanism of ZmGS5 in improving organ size and seed weight, which imply its great potential for high-yield breeding in the future.
玉米 ZmGS5 被报道与籽粒相关性状呈正相关，然而，其对植物发育和种子大小的调控机制尚不清楚。在本研究中，ZmGS5 被证明在各种玉米组织中广泛表达，在发育中的胚中表达水平最高，表明其在早期籽粒发育过程中具有关键作用。ZmGS5 蛋白定位于细胞核和细胞质中。在组成型玉米泛素 1 启动子或天然 ZmGS5 启动子的控制下，过表达 ZmGS5 的转基因拟南芥植株表现出植株大小、生物量、种子大小和重量增加，尽管在含有这两种构建体的转基因系之间没有观察到显著差异。相比之下，反义-ZmGS5 转基因导致相反的表型。我们的细胞学数据表明，ZmGS5 通过增强细胞扩张来增大花瓣大小。定量 RT-PCR 分析表明，ZmGS5 通过上调特定 EXPA 或 SWEET 基因的表达水平来增强细胞扩张和灌浆。总的来说，这些发现有助于我们进一步了解 ZmGS5 改善器官大小和种子重量的生物学功能和调控机制，这意味着它在未来的高产育种中有很大的潜力。
