Transcript suppression of TaGW2 increased grain width and weight in bread wheat.

ABSTRACT

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major staple crop in the world. Grain weight is a major factor of grain yield in wheat, and the identification of candidate genes associated with grain weight is very important for high-yield breeding of wheat. TaGW2 is an orthologous gene of rice OsGW2 that negatively regulates the grain width and weight in rice. There are three TaGW2 homoeologs in bread wheat, TaGW2A, TaGW2B, and TaGW2D. In this study, a specific TaGW2-RNA interference (RNAi) cassette was constructed and transformed into a Chinese bread wheat variety 'Shi 4185' with small grain. The transcript levels of TaGW2A, TaGW2B, and TaGW2D were simultaneously downregulated in TaGW2-RNAi transgenic wheat lines. Compared with the controls, TaGW2-underexpressing transgenic lines displayed significantly increases in the grain width and weight, suggesting that TaGW2 negatively regulated the grain width and weight in bread wheat. Further transcript analysis showed that in different bread wheat accessions, the transcript abundance of TaGW2A was negatively associated with the grain width.