State Key Laboratory of Maize Bio-breeding, National Maize Improvement Center, Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
University of California, Berkeley/Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, CA, USA.
Nat Genet. 2024 Nov;56(11):2528-2537. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01943-z. Epub 2024 Oct 16.
During domestication, early farmers selected different vegetative and reproductive traits, but identifying the causative loci has been hampered by their epistasis and functional redundancy. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing combined with genome-wide association analysis, we uncovered a developmental regulator that controls both types of trait while acting upstream of multiple domestication loci. tasselsheath4 (tsh4) is a new maize domestication gene that establishes developmental boundaries and specifies meristem fates despite not being expressed within them. TSH4 accomplishes this by using a double-negative feedback loop that targets and represses the very same microRNAs that negatively regulate it. TSH4 functions redundantly with a pair of homologs to positively regulate a suite of domestication loci while specifying the meristem that doubled seed yield in modern maize. TSH4 has a critical role in yield gain and helped generate ideal crop plant architecture, thus explaining why it was a major domestication target.
在驯化过程中，早期的农民选择了不同的营养和生殖特性，但由于它们的上位性和功能冗余，确定致病基因座一直受到阻碍。使用染色质免疫沉淀测序结合全基因组关联分析，我们发现了一个发育调节剂，它可以控制这两种特性，同时作用于多个驯化基因座的上游。tasselsheath4（tsh4）是一个新的玉米驯化基因，它建立了发育边界，并指定了分生组织的命运，尽管它不在其中表达。TSH4 通过使用一个双重负反馈回路来实现这一点，该回路靶向并抑制负调控它的微 RNA。TSH4 与一对同源物冗余地发挥作用，正向调节一系列驯化基因座，同时指定在现代玉米中使种子产量翻倍的分生组织。TSH4 在产量增加中起着关键作用，并有助于产生理想的作物植物结构，因此解释了为什么它是主要的驯化目标。
