TY  - JOUR
A1  - Cuong Nguyen Huu, 
A1  - Kappel, Christian
A1  - Keller, Barbara
A1  - Sicard, Adrien
A1  - Takebayashi, Yumiko
A1  - Breuninger, Holger
A1  - Nowak, Michael D.
A1  - Bäurle, Isabel
A1  - Himmelbach, Axel
A1  - Burkart, Michael
A1  - Ebbing-Lohaus, Thomas
A1  - Sakakibara, Hitoshi
A1  - Altschmied, Lothar
A1  - Conti, Elena
A1  - Lenhard, Michael
T1  - Presence versus absence of CYP734A50 underlies the style-length dimorphism in primroses
JF  - eLife
N2  - Heterostyly is a wide-spread floral adaptation to promote outbreeding, yet its genetic basis and evolutionary origin remain poorly understood. In Primula (primroses), heterostyly is controlled by the S-locus supergene that determines the reciprocal arrangement of reproductive organs and incompatibility between the two morphs. However, the identities of the component genes remain unknown. Here, we identify the Primula CYP734A50 gene, encoding a putative brassinosteroid-degrading enzyme, as the G locus that determines the style-length dimorphism. CYP734A50 is only present on the short-styled S-morph haplotype, it is specifically expressed in S-morph styles, and its loss or inactivation leads to long styles. The gene arose by a duplication specific to the Primulaceae lineage and shows an accelerated rate of molecular evolution. Thus, our results provide a mechanistic explanation for the Primula style-length dimorphism and begin to shed light on the evolution of the S-locus as a prime model for a complex plant supergene.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17956
SN  - 2050-084X
VL  - 5
PB  - eLife Sciences Publications
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Jöst, Moritz
A1  - Hensel, Goetz
A1  - Kappel, Christian
A1  - Druka, Arnis
A1  - Sicard, Adrien
A1  - Hohmann, Uwe
A1  - Beier, Sebastian
A1  - Himmelbach, Axel
A1  - Waugh, Robbie
A1  - Kumlehn, Jochen
A1  - Stein, Nils
A1  - Lenhard, Michael
T1  - The INDETERMINATE DOMAIN Protein BROAD LEAF1 Limits Barley Leaf Width by Restricting Lateral Proliferation
JF  - Current biology
N2  - Variation in the size, shape, and positioning of leaves as the major photosynthetic organs strongly impacts crop yield, and optimizing these aspects is a central aim of cereal breeding [1, 2]. Leaf growth in grasses is driven by cell proliferation and cell expansion in a basal growth zone [3]. Although several factors influencing final leaf size and shape have been identified from rice and maize [4-14], what limits grass leaf growth in the longitudinal or transverse directions during leaf development remains poorly understood. To identify factors involved in this process, we characterized the barley mutant broad leaf1 (blf1). Mutants form wider but slightly shorter leaves due to changes in the numbers of longitudinal cell files and of cells along the leaf length. These differences arise during primordia outgrowth because of more cell divisions in the width direction increasing the number of cell files. Positional cloning, analysis of independent alleles, and transgenic complementation confirm that BLF1 encodes a presumed transcriptional regulator of the INDETERMINATE DOMAIN family. In contrast to loss-of-function mutants, moderate overexpression of BLF1 decreases leaf width below wild-type levels. A functional BLF1-vYFP fusion protein expressed from the endogenous promoter shows a dynamic expression pattern in the shoot apical meristem and young leaf primordia. Thus, we propose that the BLF1 gene regulates barley leaf size by restricting cell proliferation in the leaf-width direction. Given the agronomic importance of canopy traits in cereals, identifying functionally different BLF1 alleles promises to allow for the generation of optimized cereal ideotypes.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.01.047
SN  - 0960-9822
SN  - 1879-0445
VL  - 26
SP  - 903
EP  - 909
PB  - Cell Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -