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Research Article

grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses

Clinton J. Whipple, Tesfamichael H. Kebrom, Allison L. Weber, Fang Yang, Darren Hall, Robert Meeley, Robert Schmidt, John Doebley, Thomas P. Brutnell, and David P. Jackson
  1. aCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724;
  2. bBoyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853;
  3. cLaboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706;
  4. dDepartment of Genetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695;
  5. eDivision of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093; and
  6. fPioneer Hi Bred–A DuPont Business, Johnston, IA 50130

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PNAS first published August 1, 2011; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102819108
Clinton J. Whipple
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Tesfamichael H. Kebrom
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Allison L. Weber
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Fang Yang
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Darren Hall
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Robert Meeley
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Robert Schmidt
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John Doebley
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Thomas P. Brutnell
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David P. Jackson
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  • For correspondence: jacksond@cshl.edu
  1. Edited by Sarah Hake, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved June 3, 2011 (received for review February 24, 2011)

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Abstract

The shape of a plant is largely determined by regulation of lateral branching. Branching architecture can vary widely in response to both genotype and environment, suggesting regulation by a complex interaction of autonomous genetic factors and external signals. Tillers, branches initiated at the base of grass plants, are suppressed in response to shade conditions. This suppression of tiller and lateral branch growth is an important trait selected by early agriculturalists during maize domestication and crop improvement. To understand how plants integrate external environmental cues with endogenous signals to control their architecture, we have begun a functional characterization of the maize mutant grassy tillers1 (gt1). We isolated the gt1 gene using positional cloning and found that it encodes a class I homeodomain leucine zipper gene that promotes lateral bud dormancy and suppresses elongation of lateral ear branches. The gt1 expression is induced by shading and is dependent on the activity of teosinte branched1 (tb1), a major domestication locus controlling tillering and lateral branching. Interestingly, like tb1, gt1 maps to a quantitative trait locus that regulates tillering and lateral branching in maize and shows evidence of selection during maize domestication. Branching and shade avoidance are both of critical agronomic importance, but little is known about how these processes are integrated. Our results indicate that gt1 mediates the reduced branching associated with the shade avoidance response in the grasses. Furthermore, selection at the gt1 locus suggests that it was involved in improving plant architecture during the domestication of maize.

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jacksond{at}cshl.edu.
  • Author contributions: C.J.W., T.H.K., R.S., J.D., T.P.B., and D.P.J. designed research; C.J.W., T.H.K., A.L.W., F.Y., D.H., and R.M. performed research; C.J.W., T.H.K., A.L.W., and D.P.J. analyzed data; and C.J.W., T.H.K., A.L.W., T.P.B., and D.P.J. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. JF420894–JF421123).

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1102819108/-/DCSupplemental.

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grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses
Clinton J. Whipple, Tesfamichael H. Kebrom, Allison L. Weber, Fang Yang, Darren Hall, Robert Meeley, Robert Schmidt, John Doebley, Thomas P. Brutnell, David P. Jackson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2011, 201102819; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1102819108

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grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses
Clinton J. Whipple, Tesfamichael H. Kebrom, Allison L. Weber, Fang Yang, Darren Hall, Robert Meeley, Robert Schmidt, John Doebley, Thomas P. Brutnell, David P. Jackson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2011, 201102819; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1102819108
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  • grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses
    - Aug 01, 2011
  • grassy tillers1 promotes apical dominance in maize and responds to shade signals in the grasses
    - Aug 01, 2011
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