Overexpression of PIF4 affects plant morphology and accelerates reproductive phase transitions in soybean

This study shows that the expression of soybean gene (GmPIF4b) regulates phenotypes related to plant architecture and reproductive phase transitions in soybean, early onset of flowering with the accelerated transition from early pod formation stage to full maturity stage without yield penalty. AbstractPhytochrome-interacting factor 4 acts as a signalling hub for integrating multiple environmental cues like light and temperature. While the function ofPIF4 in the model plantArabidopsis has been studied, there is limited knowledge regarding the role ofPIF4 in agronomically important legume crop soybean. Here, we employed a constitutive overexpression approach to functionally characterise a soybeanPIF4 homolog,GmPIF4b in a determinate short-day cultivar, Bragg. Multiple sequence alignment of seven soybean PIF4 homologs (GmPIF4a-g) withArabidopsis PIF4 revealed the presence of an active phytochrome-binding (APB) domain in the N-terminal region of six soybean PIF4 homologs.Cis-elements related to plant hormone biosynthesis, stress response, meristem and endosperm gene expression were located in the promoter region of soybeanPIF4s. Interestingly, transgenic soybean plants carrying35s::GmPIF4b::polyA construct showed reduced plant height, reduced leaf surface area, decreased branching, early flowering and faster transition from full-bloom flowering stage to full maturity stage without any decline in yield. Further, pod colour of transgenic soybean plants changed to dark brown, wherea...
Source: Food and Energy Security - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL RESEARCH Source Type: research