Key message

Elucidation of key regulators in Arabidopsis fruit patterning has facilitated knowledge-translation into crop species to address yield loss caused by premature seed dispersal (pod shatter).

Abstract

In the 1980s, plant scientists descended on a small weed Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) and developed it into a powerful model system to study plant biology. The massive advances in genetics and genomics since then have allowed us to obtain incredibly detailed knowledge on specific biological processes of Arabidopsis growth and development, its genome sequence and the function of many of the individual genes. This wealth of information provides immense potential for translation into crops to improve their performance and address issues of global importance such as food security. Here, we describe how fundamental insight into the genetic mechanism by which seed dispersal occurs in members of the Brassicaceae family can be exploited to reduce seed loss in oilseed rape (Brassica napus). We demonstrate that by exploiting data on gene function in model species, it is possible to adjust the pod-opening process in oilseed rape, thereby significantly increasing yield. Specifically, we identified mutations in multiple paralogues of the INDEHISCENT and GA4 genes in B. napus and have overcome genetic redundancy by combining mutant alleles. Finally, we present novel software for the analysis of pod shatter data that is applicable to any crop for which seed dispersal is a serious problem. These findings highlight the tremendous potential of fundamental research in guiding strategies for crop improvement.

中文翻译：

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减少油菜籽中豆荚破碎造成的种子损失说明了模型到作物转化的强大功能。

关键信息

拟南芥果实模式中关键调控因子的阐明促进了知识转化为作物物种，以解决因种子过早散布（荚果破碎）而造成的产量损失。

抽象

在1980年代，植物科学家研究了一种小型杂草拟南芥（拟南芥），并将其发展成为研究植物生物学的强大模型系统。自那时以来，遗传学和基因组学的巨大进步使我们获得了关于拟南芥生长和发育的特定生物学过程，其基因组序列以及许多单个基因的功能的极其详尽的知识。如此丰富的信息为翻译成农作物提供了巨大的潜力，可以提高农作物的性能并解决诸如粮食安全等具有全球重要性的问题。在这里，我们描述了如何利用芸苔科家族成员进行种子传播的遗传机制的基本见识来减少油菜的种子损失（甘蓝型油菜（Brassica napus）。我们证明，通过利用模型种中基因功能的数据，可以调节油菜中的豆荚开放过程，从而显着提高产量。具体而言，我们在甘蓝型油菜中鉴定了INDEHISCENT和GA4基因的多个旁系同源突变，并通过结合突变等位基因克服了遗传冗余。最后，我们提出了用于分析豆荚破碎数据的新颖软件，该软件适用于种子扩散严重的任何作物。这些发现突出了基础研究在指导作物改良策略方面的巨大潜力。