Teosinte ligule allele narrows plant architecture and enhances high-density maize yields

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5482
• Publication Date: 2019-08-15T23:06:04Z
• Authors: Jinge Tian; Chenglong Wang; Jinliang Xia; Lishuan Wu; Guanghui Xu; Weihao Wu; Dan Li; Wenchao Qin; Xu Han; Qiuyue Chen; Weiwei Jin; Feng Tian
• Keywords: Gene Editing; 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; Polymorphism, Genetic; Base Sequence; Chimera; Quantitative Trait Loci; 15. Life on land; Zea mays; Domestication; Plant Leaves; 03 medical and health sciences; GTP-Binding Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Brassinosteroids; Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors; Cloning, Molecular; Edible Grain; Alleles; Plant Proteins

Less space but greater maize yield

To meet increasing demands for food, modern agriculture works with increasingly dense plantings. Tian et al. identified a gene in teosinte, the wild ancestor of maize, and used it to alter maize such that the plant has a narrower architecture that nonetheless allows leaves access to sunlight (see the Perspective by Hake and Richardson). The yield advantage only becomes evident with the high-density plantings characteristic of modern agriculture, perhaps explaining why this gene was not brought into the fold during the previous millennia of maize domestication.

Science , this issue p. 658 ; see also p. 640