The tin1 gene retains the function of promoting tillering in maize

Xuan Zhang, Zhelong Lin, Jian Wang, Hangqin Liu, Leina Zhou, Shuyang Zhong, Yan Li, Can Zhu, Jiacheng Liu and Zhongwei Lin ()
Additional contact information
Xuan Zhang: China Agricultural University
Zhelong Lin: China Agricultural University
Jian Wang: China Agricultural University
Hangqin Liu: China Agricultural University
Leina Zhou: China Agricultural University
Shuyang Zhong: China Agricultural University
Yan Li: China Agricultural University
Can Zhu: China Agricultural University
Jiacheng Liu: China Agricultural University
Zhongwei Lin: China Agricultural University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Sweet maize and popcorn retain tillering growth habit during maize diversification. However, the underlying molecular genetic mechanism remains unknown. Here, we show that the retention of maize tillering is controlled by a major quantitative trait locus (QTL), tin1, which encodes a C2H2-zinc-finger transcription factor that acts independently of tb1. In sweet maize, a splice-site variant from G/GT to C/GT leads to intron retention, which enhances tin1 transcript levels and consequently increases tiller number. Comparative genomics analysis and DNA diversity analysis reveal that tin1 is under parallel selection across different cereal species. tin1 is involved in multiple pathways, directly represses two tiller-related genes, gt1 and Laba1/An-2, and interacts with three TOPLESS proteins to regulate the outgrowth of tiller buds. Our results support that maize tin1, derived from a standing variation in wild progenitor teosinte population, determines tillering retention during maize diversification.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13425-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-13425-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13425-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().