KIL1 terminates fertility in maize by controlling silk 

第一作者：Mária Šimášková

第一单位：根特大学

通讯作者：Moritz K Nowack

 Abstarct 

背景回顾：Plant flowers have a functional life span during which pollination and fertilization occur to ensure seed and fruit development. Once flower senescence is initiated, the potential to set seed or fruit is irrevocably lost. In maize, silk strands are the elongated floral stigmas that emerge from the husk-enveloped inflorescence to intercept airborne pollen. 

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植物的花有一个功能性的生命周期，在此期间进行授粉和受精，以确保种子和果实的发育。一旦花开始衰老，就会不可挽回地失去结实或结果的能力。在玉米中，玉米须是从由外壳包裹的花序中伸出来的细长花柱头，用来拦截空中传播的花粉。

主要研究：Here we show that KIRA1-LIKE1 (KIL1), an ortholog of the Arabidopsis NAC transcription factor KIRA1, promotes senescence and programmed cell death in the silk strand base, ending the window of accessibility for fertilization of the ovary. 

本文中，作者发现拟南芥NAC转录因子KIRA1在玉米中的同源基因KIL1能够促进玉米须基部的衰老和程序性细胞死亡，从而终止子房可受精的窗口期。

结果：Loss of KIL1 function extends silk receptivity and thus strongly increases kernel yield following late pollination. 

KIL1的功能缺失会延长玉米须接受花粉的时间，从而在授粉后期极大增加了玉米粒的产量。

结论：This phenotype offers new opportunities for possibly improving yield stability in cereal crops. Moreover, despite diverging flower morphologies and the substantial evolutionary distance between Arabidopsis and maize, our data indicate remarkably similar principles in terminating floral receptivity by programmed cell death, whose modulation offers the potential to be widely used in agriculture.

该表型为提高谷类作物产量稳定性提供了新的机会。此外，尽管拟南芥和玉米之间的花形态存在明显差异，演化上的距离也相距甚远，但本文的实验数据表明，通过程序性细胞死亡终止花可授性的原理非常相似，这为农业实践中广泛利用该原理提供了应用潜力。

** Moritz K. Nowack  **

doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac151

Journal: The Plant Cell

Published date: May 24, 2022

CITE

Mária Šimášková, Anna Daneva, Nicolas Doll, Neeltje Schilling, Marta Cubría-Radío, Liangzi Zhou, Freya De Winter, Stijn Aesaert, Riet De Rycke, Laurens Pauwels, Thomas Dresselhaus, Norbert Brugière, Carl R Simmons, Jeffrey E Habben, Moritz K Nowack. KIL1 terminates fertility in maize by controlling silk senescence. The Plant Cell, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac151