Expression of trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase in maize ears improves yield in well-watered and drought conditions

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Nuccio, M. L., Wu, J., Mowers, R., Zhou, H-P., Meghji, M., Primavesi, L. F., Paul, M. J., Chen, X., Gao, Y., Haque, E., Sankar Basu, S. and Lagrimini, L. M. 2015. Expression of trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase in maize ears improves yield in well-watered and drought conditions. Nature Biotechnology. 33, pp. 862-869. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3277

AuthorsNuccio, M. L., Wu, J., Mowers, R., Zhou, H-P., Meghji, M., Primavesi, L. F., Paul, M. J., Chen, X., Gao, Y., Haque, E., Sankar Basu, S. and Lagrimini, L. M.
Abstract

Maize, the highest-yielding cereal crop worldwide, is particularly susceptible to drought during its 2- to 3-week flowering period. Many genetic engineering strategies for drought tolerance impinge on plant development, reduce maximum yield potential or do not translate from laboratory conditions to the field. We overexpressed a gene encoding a rice trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) in developing maize ears using a floral promoter. This reduced the concentration of trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a sugar signal that regulates growth and development, and increased the concentration of sucrose in ear spikelets. Overexpression of TPP increased both kernel set and harvest index. Field data at several sites and over multiple seasons showed that the engineered trait improved yields from 9% to 49% under non-drought or mild drought conditions, and from 31% to 123% under more severe drought conditions, relative to yields from nontransgenic controls. 

KeywordsRRES175; 175_Plant sciences; 175_Genetics
Year of Publication2015
JournalNature Biotechnology
Journal citation33, pp. 862-869
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3277
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Funder project or codeWheat
Molecular definition of Trehalose 6-phosphate mediated yield improvement
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Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online09 Jul 2015
Publication process dates
Accepted08 Jun 2015
PublisherNature Publishing Group
ISSN1087-0156

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