Engineering the key domains of starch synthases and branching enzyme to balance the amylose increase and yield loss in maize kernels.

IF 2.6 3区农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY

Molecular Breeding Pub Date : 2025-03-31 eCollection Date: 2025-04-01 DOI:10.1007/s11032-025-01559-z

Zhengqi Wang, Shuting Hu, Junhong Zhuang, Xuan Zhang, Xingyu Ge, Sixuan Xu, Xiaoming Zhao, Huaijun Tang, Xiqing Wang, Jiansheng Li, Xiaohong Yang

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Abstract

Amylose content and resistant starch (RS) are of great importance due to their multiple functionalities in the food and pharmaceutical industries and their benefits for human health. However, breeding high-amylose maize remains challenging because of the trade-off between amylose content and yield loss. Here, we report targeted mutagenesis of the key domains of starch synthases and branching enzyme including SSIIa, SSIII and SBEIIb via a CRISPR-Cas9 technology; this generated 15, 21, and 14 novel alleles, respectively, in the maize inbred line LH244. Except for ssIII mutants, the ssIIa and sbeIIb mutants had significantly greater apparent amylose content (AAC) and RS content compared with wild-type kernels. Although most mutants had reduced hundred-kernel weight (HKW) relative to wild-type plants, some mutants had only a small HKW reduction. Investigation of six representative mutants revealed that mutants of ssIIa and sbeIIb with higher AAC and RS content were accompanied with reduced starch content viscosity, increased content of reducing sugars and soluble sugars, and yet no apparent trade-off with agronomic traits. These findings offer a promising path for high-amylose maize breeding, accelerating the development of germplasms with enhanced RS content for the benefit of both global health and industry.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-025-01559-z.

查看原文本刊更多论文

设计淀粉合酶和分支酶的关键结构域以平衡玉米籽粒直链淀粉增加和产量损失。

由于直链淀粉含量和抗性淀粉（RS）在食品和制药业中的多种功能及其对人类健康的益处，它们具有非常重要的意义。然而，由于直链淀粉含量和产量损失之间的权衡问题，培育高直链淀粉玉米仍具有挑战性。在此，我们报告了通过 CRISPR-Cas9 技术对淀粉合成酶和分支酶的关键结构域（包括 SSIIa、SSIII 和 SBEIIb）进行靶向诱变的结果，在玉米近交系 LH244 中分别产生了 15、21 和 14 个新型等位基因。除ssIII突变体外，ssIIa和sbeIIb突变体的表观直链淀粉含量（AAC）和RS含量均显著高于野生型籽粒。虽然与野生型植株相比，大多数突变体的百粒重（HKW）都有所降低，但有些突变体的百粒重只降低了一小部分。对六个代表性突变体的研究表明，ssIIa 和 sbeIIb 突变体的 AAC 和 RS 含量较高，同时淀粉含量粘度降低，还原糖和可溶性糖含量增加，但与农艺性状之间没有明显的权衡。这些发现为高淀粉玉米育种提供了一条前景广阔的道路，可加速开发RS含量更高的种质，从而造福全球健康和工业：在线版本包含补充材料，可查阅 10.1007/s11032-025-01559-z。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Molecular Breeding 农林科学-农艺学

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

6.50%

发文量

审稿时长

1.5 months

期刊介绍： Molecular Breeding is an international journal publishing papers on applications of plant molecular biology, i.e., research most likely leading to practical applications. The practical applications might relate to the Developing as well as the industrialised World and have demonstrable benefits for the seed industry, farmers, processing industry, the environment and the consumer. All papers published should contribute to the understanding and progress of modern plant breeding, encompassing the scientific disciplines of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, physiology, pathology, plant breeding, and ecology among others. Molecular Breeding welcomes the following categories of papers: full papers, short communications, papers describing novel methods and review papers. All submission will be subject to peer review ensuring the highest possible scientific quality standards. Molecular Breeding core areas: Molecular Breeding will consider manuscripts describing contemporary methods of molecular genetics and genomic analysis, structural and functional genomics in crops, proteomics and metabolic profiling, abiotic stress and field evaluation of transgenic crops containing particular traits. Manuscripts on marker assisted breeding are also of major interest, in particular novel approaches and new results of marker assisted breeding, QTL cloning, integration of conventional and marker assisted breeding, and QTL studies in crop plants.