The potential of genome editing to improve the agronomic performance of crops is often limited by low plant regeneration efficiencies and few transformable genotypes. Here, we show that expression of a fusion protein combining wheat GROWTH-REGULATING FACTOR 4 (GRF4) and its cofactor GRF-INTERACTING FACTOR 1 (GIF1) substantially increases the efficiency and speed of regeneration in wheat, triticale and rice and increases the number of transformable wheat genotypes. GRF4–GIF1 transgenic plants were fertile and without obvious developmental defects. Moreover, GRF4–GIF1 induced efficient wheat regeneration in the absence of exogenous cytokinins, which facilitates selection of transgenic plants without selectable markers. We also combined GRF4–GIF1 with CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing and generated 30 edited wheat plants with disruptions in the gene Q (AP2L-A5). Finally, we show that a dicot GRF–GIF chimera improves regeneration efficiency in citrus, suggesting that this strategy can be applied to dicot crops.

基因组编辑改善作物农艺性能的潜力往往受到植物再生效率低和可转化基因型少的限制。在此，我们表明，小麦生长调节因子 4 (GRF4) 及其辅因子 GRF 相互作用因子 1 (GIF1) 的融合蛋白的表达显着提高了小麦、小黑麦和水稻的再生效率和速度，并增加了可转化的小麦基因型。 GRF4-GIF1转基因植株可育且无明显发育缺陷。此外， GRF4-GIF1在没有外源细胞分裂素的情况下诱导有效的小麦再生，这有助于在没有选择标记的情况下选择转基因植物。我们还将GRF4–GIF1与 CRISPR–Cas9 基因组编辑相结合，生成了 30 株Q基因 ( AP2L-A5 ) 被破坏的编辑小麦植株。最后，我们证明双子叶植物GRF-GIF嵌合体可以提高柑橘的再生效率，这表明该策略可以应用于双子叶作物。