Original title: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: gene editing helps soybean yield in the South
Science and technology daily, Beijing, July 2 (Xinhua) according to the latest news from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the plant transgenic technology research center of the Institute of Crop Sciences and the soybean breeding technology innovation and new variety breeding innovation team of the Academy used CRISPR / cas9 genome editing technology to knock out the key genes gmft2a and gmft5a of soybean flowering regulation, and created mutant materials more suitable for planting in low latitude areas; At the same time, the genetic effects of gmft2a and gmft5a genes in soybean flowering regulation were systematically analyzed, which provided new technologies and materials for regional adaptive improvement of soybean varieties. Relevant research results were recently published online in plant biotechnology journal.
Han Tianfu, chief of the team and researcher of the Institute of agronomy of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that soybeans are sensitive to photoperiod. Only after the sunshine length is shortened to a certain limit can most varieties change from vegetative growth to reproductive growth, and then blossom and pod; As a result, soybean varieties tend to flower late and mature late, prolong the growth period, and even fail to blossom or mature normally when they are moved north; When planting in the south, it generally shows premature flowering, shortened growth period, reduced yield and even unable to grow normally. This photoperiodic response makes the suitable planting area of soybean varieties generally narrow. Previous studies have shown that gmft2a and gmft5a genes are important flowering promoting factors in soybean.
By constructing overexpression plants of gmft2a and gmft5a genes, the team used CRISPR / cas9 genome editing technology to knock out gmft2a and gmft5a, and combined with hybridization to create single gene and double gene mutant materials. The results showed that although gmft2a and gmft5a had complementary functions in the regulation of flowering period of soybean, their flowering promoting effects were quite different under long and short sunshine conditions. Under the condition of short sunshine, the flowering promoting effect of gmft2a was stronger than that of gmft5a, while the flowering promoting effect of gmft5a was stronger under the condition of long sunshine. The critical photoperiod has a great impact on the regulation of soybean flowering period participated by gmft5a. When the number of days exceeds the critical Photoperiod of varieties, gmft5a gene is the main flowering promoting gene and the key gene to enable soybean to adapt to the long sunshine environment. The study also found that the created double gene mutant bloomed for an average of 57.4 days under short sunshine, about 31.3 days later than the wild type, the plant height and node number were significantly higher than the wild type, and the number of pods and grains per plant were also significantly increased, which provided a new basic material for the improvement of soybean varieties suitable for planting in low latitude areas.