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

Jinge Tian(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Chenglong Wang(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Jinliang Xia(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Lishuan Wu(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Guanghui Xu(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Weihao Wu(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Dan Li(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Wenchao Qin(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Xu Han(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Qiuyue Chen(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Weiwei Jin(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry), Feng Tian(State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry)
Science
August 15, 2019
Cited by 476

Abstract

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


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