TY - JOUR
T1 - Fertility of pedicellate spikelets in sorghum is controlled by a jasmonic acid regulatory module
AU - Gladman, Nicholas
AU - Jiao, Yinping
AU - Lee, Young Koung
AU - Zhang, Lifang
AU - Chopra, Ratan
AU - Regulski, Michael
AU - Burow, Gloria
AU - Hayes, Chad
AU - Christensen, Shawn A.
AU - Dampanaboina, Lavanya
AU - Chen, Junping
AU - Burke, John
AU - Ware, Doreen
AU - Xin, Zhanguo
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: N.G., Y.J., R.C., G.B., J.B., C.H., and Z.X. acknowledge support from the United Sorghum Checkoff program. Z.X. was also partly supported by USDA ARS 3096-21000-019-00-D. Y.J., Y.K.L., N.G., M.R., and D.W. were partly supported by USDA ARS 8062-21000-041-00D. Y.K.L. acknowledges that this work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Project No. PJ013658032019), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, and R&D Program of ‘Plasma Advanced Technology for Agriculture and Food (Plasma Farming)’ through the National Fusion Research Institute of Korea (NFRI). NG was supported by an ARS-funded postdoc fellowship. The APC was funded by USDA ARS 8062-21000-041-00D.
Funding Information:
N.G., Y.J., R.C., G.B., J.B., C.H., and Z.X. acknowledge support from the United Sorghum Checkoff program. Z.X. was also partly supported by USDA ARS 3096-21000-019-00-D. Y.J., Y.K.L., N.G., M.R., and D.W. were partly supported by USDA ARS 8062-21000-041-00D. Y.K.L. acknowledges that this work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (Project No. PJ013658032019), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, and R&D Program of ?Plasma Advanced Technology for Agriculture and Food (Plasma Farming)? through the National Fusion Research Institute of Korea (NFRI). NG was supported by an ARS-funded postdoc fellowship. The APC was funded by USDA ARS 8062-21000-041-00D. Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank all the support staff, students, and farmers that have made this work possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - As in other cereal crops, the panicles of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) comprise two types of floral spikelets (grass flowers). Only sessile spikelets (SSs) are capable of producing viable grains, whereas pedicellate spikelets (PSs) cease development after initiation and eventually abort. Consequently, grain number per panicle (GNP) is lower than the total number of flowers produced per panicle. The mechanism underlying this differential fertility is not well understood. To investigate this issue, we isolated a series of ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-induced multiseeded (msd) mutants that result in full spikelet fertility, effectively doubling GNP. Previously, we showed that MSD1 is a TCP (Teosinte branched/Cycloidea/PCF) transcription factor that regulates jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis, and ultimately floral sex organ development. Here, we show that MSD2 encodes a lipoxygenase (LOX) that catalyzes the first committed step of JA biosynthesis. Further, we demonstrate that MSD1 binds to the promoters of MSD2 and other JA pathway genes. Together, these results show that a JA-induced module regulates sorghum panicle development and spikelet fertility. The findings advance our understanding of inflorescence development and could lead to new strategies for increasing GNP and grain yield in sorghum and other cereal crops.
AB - As in other cereal crops, the panicles of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) comprise two types of floral spikelets (grass flowers). Only sessile spikelets (SSs) are capable of producing viable grains, whereas pedicellate spikelets (PSs) cease development after initiation and eventually abort. Consequently, grain number per panicle (GNP) is lower than the total number of flowers produced per panicle. The mechanism underlying this differential fertility is not well understood. To investigate this issue, we isolated a series of ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-induced multiseeded (msd) mutants that result in full spikelet fertility, effectively doubling GNP. Previously, we showed that MSD1 is a TCP (Teosinte branched/Cycloidea/PCF) transcription factor that regulates jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis, and ultimately floral sex organ development. Here, we show that MSD2 encodes a lipoxygenase (LOX) that catalyzes the first committed step of JA biosynthesis. Further, we demonstrate that MSD1 binds to the promoters of MSD2 and other JA pathway genes. Together, these results show that a JA-induced module regulates sorghum panicle development and spikelet fertility. The findings advance our understanding of inflorescence development and could lead to new strategies for increasing GNP and grain yield in sorghum and other cereal crops.
KW - Gene expression
KW - Jasmonic acid signaling
KW - Plant development
KW - Transcriptional regulators
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073112383&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijms20194951
DO - 10.3390/ijms20194951
M3 - Article
C2 - 31597271
AN - SCOPUS:85073112383
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 20
JO - International journal of molecular sciences
JF - International journal of molecular sciences
IS - 19
M1 - 4951
ER -