Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1051, USA.
Interdepartmental Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-3650, USA.
Plant Physiol. 2023 Jul 3;192(3):2394-2403. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiad194.
Roots anchor plants in soil, and the failure of anchorage (i.e. root lodging) is a major cause of crop yield loss. Anchorage is often assumed to be driven by root system architecture (RSA). We made use of a natural experiment to measure the overlap between the genetic regulation of RSA and anchorage. After one of the most devastating derechos ever recorded in August 2020, we phenotyped root lodging in a maize (Zea mays) diversity panel consisting of 369 genotypes grown in 6 environments affected by the derecho. Genome-wide and transcriptome-wide association studies identified 118 candidate genes associated with root lodging. Thirty-four percent (40/118) of these were homologs of genes from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) that affect traits such as root morphology and lignin content, expected to affect root lodging. Finally, gene ontology enrichment analysis of the candidate genes and their predicted interaction partners at the transcriptional and translational levels revealed the complex regulatory networks of physiological and biochemical pathways underlying root lodging in maize. Limited overlap between genes associated with lodging resistance and RSA in this diversity panel suggests that anchorage depends in part on factors other than the gross characteristics of RSA.
根将植物固定在土壤中，而锚固的失效（即根倒伏）是作物产量损失的主要原因。锚固通常被认为是由根系结构（RSA）驱动的。我们利用自然实验来衡量 RSA 和锚固的遗传调控之间的重叠。2020 年 8 月，一场有史以来最具破坏性的 derecho 过后，我们对由 369 个基因型组成的玉米（Zea mays）多样性面板进行了根倒伏表型分析，这些基因型在 6 个受 derecho 影响的环境中生长。全基因组和转录组关联研究鉴定出 118 个与根倒伏相关的候选基因。这些基因中有 34%（40/118）是拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）基因的同源物，这些基因影响根形态和木质素含量等性状，预计会影响根倒伏。最后，对候选基因及其在转录和翻译水平上的预测互作伙伴进行基因本体富集分析，揭示了玉米根倒伏生理生化途径的复杂调控网络。在这个多样性面板中，与抗倒伏性和 RSA 相关的基因之间的重叠有限，这表明锚固部分取决于 RSA 总特征以外的因素。
