Dataset Information

Fine-Tuning Florigen Increases Field Yield Through Improving Photosynthesis in Soybean.

ABSTRACT: Crop yield has been maintaining its attraction for researchers because of the demand of global population growth. Mutation of flowering activators, such as florigen, increases plant biomass at the expense of later flowering, which prevents crop maturity in the field. As a result, it is difficult to apply flowering activators in agriculture production. Here, we developed a strategy to utilize florigen to significantly improve soybean yield in the field. Through the screening of transgenic lines of RNAi-silenced florigen homologs in soybean (Glycine-max-Flowering Locus T Like, GmFTL), we identified a line, GmFTL-RNAi#1, with minor changes in both GmFTL expression and flowering time but with notable increase in soybean yield. As expected, GmFTL-RNAi#1 matured normally in the field and exhibited markedly high yield over multiple locations and years, indicating that it is possible to reach a trade-off between flowering time and high yield through the fine-tuning expression of flowering activators. Further studies uncovered an unknown mechanism by which GmFTL negatively regulates photosynthesis, a substantial source of crop yield, demonstrating a novel function of florigen. Thus, because of the highly conserved functions of florigen in plants and the classical RNAi approach, the findings provide a promising strategy to harness early flowering genes to improve crop yield.

SUBMITTER: Xu K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8415793 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fine-Tuning Florigen Increases Field Yield Through Improving Photosynthesis in Soybean.

Xu Kun K Zhang Xiao-Mei XM Chen Haifeng H Zhang Chanjuan C Zhu Jinlong J Cheng Zhiyuan Z Huang Penghui P Zhou Xinan X Miao Yuchen Y Feng Xianzhong X Fu Yong-Fu YF

Frontiers in plant science 20210816

Crop yield has been maintaining its attraction for researchers because of the demand of global population growth. Mutation of flowering activators, such as florigen, increases plant biomass at the expense of later flowering, which prevents crop maturity in the field. As a result, it is difficult to apply flowering activators in agriculture production. Here, we developed a strategy to utilize florigen to significantly improve soybean yield in the field. Through the screening of transgenic lines o ...[more]

PMID: 34484271

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Project description:ContextPhotosynthetic stimulations have shown promising outcomes in improving crop photosynthesis, including soybean. However, it is still unclear to what extent these changes can impact photosynthetic assimilation and yield under long-term field climate conditions.ObjectiveIn this paper, we present a systematic evaluation of the response of canopy photosynthesis and yield to two critical parameters in leaf photosynthesis: the maximum carboxylation rate of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Vcmax) and the maximum electron transport of the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration rate (Jmax).MethodsUsing the field-scale crop model Soybean-BioCro and ten years of observed climate data in Urbana, Illinois, U.S., we conducted sensitivity experiments to estimate the changes in canopy photosynthesis, leaf area index, and biomass due to the changes in Vcmax and Jmax.ResultsThe results show that 1) Both the canopy photosynthetic assimilation (An) and pod biomass yields were more sensitive to the changes in Jmax, particularly at high atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations ([CO2]); 2) Higher [CO2] undermined the effectiveness of increasing the two parameters to improve An and yield; 3) Under the same [CO2], canopy light interception and canopy respiration were key factors that undermined improvements in An and yield; 4) A canopy with smaller leaf area index tended to have a higher yield improvement, and 5) Increases in assimilations and yields were highly dependent on growing-season climatic conditions. The solar radiation, temperature, and relative humidity were the main climate drivers that impacted the yield improvement, and they had opposite correlations with improved yield during the vegetative phase compared to the reproductive phase.ConclusionsIn a world with elevated [CO2], genetic engineering crop photosynthesis should focus more on improving Jmax. Further, long-term climate conditions and seasonal variations must be considered to determine the improvements in soybean canopy photosynthesis and yield at the field scale.ImplicationsQuantifying the effectiveness of changing Vcmax and Jmax helps understand their individual and combined contributions to potential improvements in assimilation and yield. This work provides a framework for evaluating how altering the photosynthetic rate parameters impacts soybean yield and assimilation under different seasonal climate scenarios at the field scale.

Project description:The superiority of hybrids has long been exploited in agriculture, and although many models explaining "heterosis" have been put forth, direct empirical support is limited. Particularly elusive have been cases of heterozygosity for single gene mutations causing heterosis under a genetic model known as overdominance. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), plants carrying mutations in SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) encoding the flowering hormone florigen are severely delayed in flowering, become extremely large, and produce few flowers and fruits, but when heterozygous, yields are dramatically increased. Curiously, this overdominance is evident only in the background of "determinate" plants, in which the continuous production of side shoots and inflorescences gradually halts due to a defect in the flowering repressor SELF PRUNING (SP). How sp facilitates sft overdominance is unclear, but is thought to relate to the opposing functions these genes have on flowering time and shoot architecture. We show that sft mutant heterozygosity (sft/+) causes weak semi-dominant delays in flowering of both primary and side shoots. Using transcriptome sequencing of shoot meristems, we demonstrate that this delay begins before seedling meristems become reproductive, followed by delays in subsequent side shoot meristems that, in turn, postpone the arrest of shoot and inflorescence production. Reducing SFT levels in sp plants by artificial microRNAs recapitulates the dose-dependent modification of shoot and inflorescence production of sft/+ heterozygotes, confirming that fine-tuning levels of functional SFT transcripts provides a foundation for higher yields. Finally, we show that although flowering delays by florigen mutant heterozygosity are conserved in Arabidopsis, increased yield is not, likely because cyclical flowering is absent. We suggest sft heterozygosity triggers a yield improvement by optimizing plant architecture via its dosage response in the florigen pathway. Exploiting dosage sensitivity of florigen and its family members therefore provides a path to enhance productivity in other crops, but species-specific tuning will be required.

Dataset Information

Fine-Tuning Florigen Increases Field Yield Through Improving Photosynthesis in Soybean.

Publications

Fine-Tuning Florigen Increases Field Yield Through Improving Photosynthesis in Soybean.

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