The naturally occurring genetic variation in the universal flowering (or heading date in crops) pathway has produced major advancements in crop domestication and expansion, and the various combinations of heading date genes have facilitated the plants to heading at suitable times in different ecological zones. However, gene combinations that can maximize crop yields may not exist in natural populations. Here, we planted a series of heading date mutants that harbored different heading mutant gene combinations generated by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, along with a collection of commercial varieties, across a large latitude gradient to evaluate the major effects of heading date genes and preferable gene combinations for each area. The relationship between yield and heading date was investigated. According to the pattern obtained from gene editing mutants, we concluded that the growth period of commercial varieties could be adjusted to achieve maximum yield performance in some areas. By combining the long vegetative growth allele and weak photoperiod sensitivity allele, we pinpointed an optimal balance between growth period and yield production, resulting in new partially determinate heading date to maximum yields and improved adaptability. We propose that harnessing mutations in the florigen pathway to customize the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth offers a broad toolkit for boosting crop productivity.

通用开花（或作物抽穗日期）途径中自然发生的遗传变异在作物驯化和扩张方面取得了重大进展，抽穗日期基因的各种组合促进了植物在不同生态区的合适时间抽穗。然而，能够最大化农作物产量的基因组合可能不存在于自然种群中。在这里，我们在大纬度梯度上种植了一系列含有不同抽穗突变基因组合的抽穗日期突变体，以及一系列商业品种，这些组合是通过CRISPR/Cas9基因编辑技术产生的，以评估抽穗日期基因的主要影响和优选每个区域的基因组合。研究了产量和抽穗期之间的关系。根据基因编辑突变体获得的模式，我们得出结论，可以调整商业品种的生育期，以在某些地区获得最大的产量表现。通过结合长营养生长等位基因和弱光周期敏感性等位基因，我们确定了生长期和产量之间的最佳平衡，从而获得新的部分确定的抽穗日期以达到最大产量并提高适应性。我们建议，利用成花素途径的突变来定制营养生长和生殖生长之间的平衡，为提高作物生产力提供了广泛的工具包。