KIL1 terminates fertility in maize by controlling silk senescence.
Plant Cell
; 34(8): 2852-2870, 2022 07 30.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35608197
ABSTRACT
Plant flowers have a functional life span during which pollination and fertilization occur to ensure seed and fruit development. Once flower senescence is initiated, the potential to set seed or fruit is irrevocably lost. In maize, silk strands are the elongated floral stigmas that emerge from the husk-enveloped inflorescence to intercept airborne pollen. Here we show that KIRA1-LIKE1 (KIL1), an ortholog of the Arabidopsis NAC (NAM (NO APICAL MERISTEM), ATAF1/2 (Arabidopsis thaliana Activation Factor1 and 2) and CUC (CUP-SHAPED COTYLEDON 2)) transcription factor KIRA1, promotes senescence and programmed cell death (PCD) in the silk strand base, ending the window of accessibility for fertilization of the ovary. Loss of KIL1 function extends silk receptivity and thus strongly increases kernel yield following late pollination. This phenotype offers new opportunities for possibly improving yield stability in cereal crops. Moreover, despite diverging flower morphologies and the substantial evolutionary distance between Arabidopsis and maize, our data indicate remarkably similar principles in terminating floral receptivity by PCD, whose modulation offers the potential to be widely used in agriculture.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Arabidopsis
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Plant Cell
Assunto da revista:
BOTANICA
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Bélgica