Bird predation during seed maturation causes great loss to agricultural production. In this study, through GWAS analysis of a large-scale sorghum germplasm diversity panel, we identified that Tannin1, which encodes a WD40 protein functioning in the WD40/MYB/bHLH complex, controls bird feeding behavior in sorghum. Metabolic profiling analysis showed that a group of sorghum accessions preferred by birds contain mutated tan1-a/b alleles and accumulate significantly lower levels of anthocyanins and condensed tannin compounds. In contrast, a variety of aromatic and fatty acid-derived volatiles accumulate at significantly higher levels in these bird-preference accessions. We subsequently conducted both sparrow feeding and sparrow volatile attractant assays, which confirmed, respectively, the antifeedant and attractant functions of these differentially accumulated metabolites. In addition, the connection between the biosynthesis pathway of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin and the pathway of fatty acid–derived volatile biosynthesis was demonstrated by discovering that Tannin1 complex modulates fatty acid biosynthesis by regulating the expression of SbGL2 in sorghum, thus affecting the accumulation of fatty acid-derived volatiles. Taken together, our study identified Tannin1 as the gene underlying the major locus controlling bird feeding behavior in sorghum, illustrating an example of the identification of an ecologically impactful molecular mechanism from field observation and providing significant insights into the chemistry of bird–plant ecological interactions.

种子成熟过程中的鸟类捕食会给农业生产造成巨大损失。在这项研究中，通过对大型高粱种质多样性专家组的GWAS分析，我们确定了Tannin1（其编码在WD40 / MYB / bHLH复合物中起作用的WD40蛋白）控制着高粱的鸟类摄食行为。代谢谱分析表明，鸟类偏爱的一组高粱种质含有突变的tan1-a / b等位基因并积聚大量较低的花色苷和缩合的单宁化合物。相反，在这些鸟类偏好的种质中，各种芳香族和脂肪酸衍生的挥发物以明显更高的水平积累。随后，我们进行了麻雀饲养和麻雀挥发性引诱剂测定，分别证实了这些差异积累的代谢物的拒食和引诱剂功能。此外，通过发现Tannin1复合物通过调节SbGL2的表达来调节脂肪酸的生物合成，证明了花色苷和原花色素的生物合成途径与脂肪酸衍生的挥发性生物合成途径之间的联系。在高粱中，从而影响脂肪酸衍生挥发物的积累。综上所述，我们的研究确定了Tannin1是控制高粱鸟类摄食行为的主要基因位点的基因，说明了通过实地观察鉴定具有生态影响的分子机制的一个例子，并为鸟类与植物生态相互作用的化学过程提供了重要的见识。