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Authors: Yongyu Huang, Roop Kamal, Nandhakumar Shanmugaraj, Twan Rutten, Venkatasubbu Thirulogachandar, Shuangshuang Zhao, Iris Hoffie, Goetz Hensel, Jeyaraman Rajaraman, Yudelsy Antonia Tandron Moya, Mohammad-Reza Hajirezaei, Axel Himmelbach, Naser Poursarebani, Udda Lundqvist, Jochen Kumlehn, Nils Stein, Nicolaus von Wirén, Martin Mascher, Michael Melzer and Thorsten Schnurbusch.
Science Advances (2023)
One-sentence summary: Signaling from inflorescence vasculature via CCT MOTIF FAMILY4 determine distal floral fate and yield traits in barley.
Abstract: Flowering plants with indeterminate inflorescences often produce more floral structures than they require. We found that floral primordia initiations in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) are molecularly decoupled from their maturation into grains. While initiation is dominated by flowering-time genes, floral growth is specified by light signaling, chloroplast, and vascular developmental programs orchestrated by barley CCT MOTIF FAMILY 4 (HvCMF4), which is expressed in the inflorescence vasculature. Consequently, mutations in HvCMF4 increase primordia death and pollination failure, mainly through reducing rachis greening and limiting plastidial energy supply to developing heterotrophic floral tissues. We propose that HvCMF4 is a sensory factor for light that acts in connection with the vascular-localized circadian clock to coordinate floral initiation and survival. Notably, stacking beneficial alleles for both primordia number and survival provides positive implications on grain production. Our findings provide insights into the molecular underpinnings of grain number determination in cereal crops."
