Authors
Zhiwei Zhao, Huafeng Liang, Chengxiu Wu, Yifan Ni, Fei Wang, Fan Feng, Xin Zhang, Jingzhen Liu, Juan Yi, Xuan Du, Chunyi Zhang, Xiaoduo Lu, Yingjie Xiao, Jianbing Yan, Hongtao Liu
Published in
The Plant cell. Jul 15, 2026. Epub Jul 15, 2026.
Abstract
Achieving optimal flowering time is a pivotal factor in precision plant breeding. Here, in maize, we characterized an EMS-induced additive delayed-flowering mutant, edf1. edf1 and its heterozygotes are late-flowering under both long- and short-day photoperiods in the field, and harbor a splice-donor mutation in ALTERED PHLOEM DEVELOPMENT (APL). This mutation leads to the accumulation of the minor APL-β transcript, a splice variant expressed across a large natural maize population. Expression of the major splice variant APL-α is associated with flowering initiation; APL knock-down delays flowering and results in taller plants with increased biomass and plot yield. APL-α binds to and activates the promoter of ZCN8 to trigger flowering, while APL-β has impaired DNA-binding activity and antagonizes APL-α function. Base editing of the APL MYB domain in an elite rice cultivar and Arabidopsis results in delayed flowering, providing a feasible approach to regulate flowering time for the molecular breeding of staple crops.
PMID:
42456114
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jul 2026.
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