Soybean (Glycine max) serves as a significant economic crop that provides edible oil, vegetative protein, as well as other nutrients for humans. Soybean was originated and domesticated from China. Identification of novel seed regulators through abundant accessions in our country is of great importance for elucidating related regulatory networks and breeding of modern cultivars.
Research group of Prof. ZHANG Jinsong, from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), recently identified the regulatory factor GmPLATZ from seed transcriptomes and further found that it controlled seed weight and size through GmPLATZ-GmGA20OX/cyclins module in soybean.
Through RNA sequencing and weight gene co-expression network analysis of forty-five soybean accessions, researchers from ZHANG’s group identified one hundred and ninety-nine seed weight regulators. The transcriptomes from seven developmental stages of soybean seeds were further analyzed, and one hundred and seventy-three developmentally related genes were detected.
They identified GmPLATZ from the two gene sets and found that it was required for the promotion of seed weight and size in soybean. GmPLATZ activated the expression of six cyclin genes and GmGA20OX through binding to their promoters. A core palindromic element AATGCGCATT was essential for GmPLATZ binding. Overexpression of GmGA20OX enhanced soybean seed size and weight significantly.
The PLATZ was selected during soybean domestication and its orthologues from Arabidopsis and rice also affected seed size and weight. This finding provides effective strategies and valuable gene targets for soybean molecular breeding.
This work entitled “Global analysis of seed transcriptomes reveals a novel PLATZ regulator for seed size and weight control in soybean” was online published in New Phytologist on October 15, 2023 (doi: 10.1111/nph.19316). This research was supported by the National Key R & D Project and other projects.
Figure. Gene identification, phenotype analyses and working model of GmPLATZ (Image by IGDB)
(A) Hierarchical clustering tree based on co-expression network. (B) The GO enrichment for constantly accumulated genes. (C) Seeds from Williams 82 and gmpla/b mutant plants. (D) Working model of GmPLATZ in controlling seed size and weight.
Contact:
Dr. ZHANG Jinsong
Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
CAS
中文
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Figure. Gene identification, phenotype analyses and working model of GmPLATZ (Image by IGDB)(A) Hierarchical clustering tree based on co-expression network. (B) The GO enrichment for constantly accumulated genes. (C) Seeds from Williams 82 and gmpla/b mutant plants. (D) Working model of GmPLATZ in controlling seed size and weight.Contact:Dr. ZHANG JinsongInstitute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of SciencesEmail: jszhang@genetics.ac.cn