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Harnessing hormone gibberellin knowledge for plant height regulation

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Abstract

Key message

Harnessing hormone GA knowledge is a potential means to develop plant height ideotypes.

Abstract

Plant height holds significance for natural beauty and agricultural revolution. The increased grain productivity during the Green Revolution of the 1960s is partly attributed to the reshaping of plant stature, which is conferred by changes in phytohormone gibberellin (GA) metabolism or signaling. GA fine-tunes multiple aspects of biological events and plays a pivotal role in plant height determinant. Harnessing hormone GA knowledge is a potential means to develop ideal plant height to meet the future demand. Here, we present an overview of characterized GA pathway genes for plant height regulation. Novel alleles of Green Revolution genes sd1 and Rht are specially delineated. Through interactome analysis, we uncover GA20ox and GA3ox family members as central hub modulators of GA pathway. Empowered by GA knowledge, we suggest ways towards design breeding of plant height ideotypes through harnessing the alterations of GA cascade. We highlight the utility of genome editing to generate weak alleles to circumvent side effects of GA pathway perturbation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the editors for the opportunity to contribute to this review and the reviewers for valuable suggestions. We apologize for not being able to cite many relevant original papers owing to space limitations. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571671), the High-end Talent Project of Yangzhou University (18HTYZU12), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 31571671, Yijun Wang, High-end Talent Project of Yangzhou University, 18HTYZU12, Yijun Wang, Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, PAPD, Yijun Wang.

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  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Physiology/ Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics of the Ministry of Education/Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Agriculture, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China

    Shanshan Wang & Yijun Wang

  2. Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China

    Shanshan Wang & Yijun Wang

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  1. Shanshan Wang
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  2. Yijun Wang
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YJW: conceived the review. SSW: prepared the figures and tables. YJW and SSW: wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yijun Wang.

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Communicated by Wusheng Liu.

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Wang, S., Wang, Y. Harnessing hormone gibberellin knowledge for plant height regulation. Plant Cell Rep 41, 1945–1953 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-022-02904-8

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