Bei Li, Zhiyong Wang, Lingli Dong, Zhenying Dong, Kunpu Zhang, Yanpeng Wang, Reyazul Rouf Mir, Jinfang Chu, Yiwen, Mingtian Zhao, Mengen Chen, Zhaohui Wang, Yue Zhang, Lidan Guo, Annapurna Chitikineni, Jijun Yan, Peiyong Xin, Bingbing Zhang, Junlong Li, Xiao Sun, Yuxuan Meng, Yining Wang, Yanmeng Ding, Jiatian Wang, Shengjia Zhang, Cuilan Shi, Zehong Yan, Shoufen Dai, Weining Song, Caixia Gao, Rajeev K Varshney, Zhiyong Liu, Daowen Wang, Guangwei Li
Nature Communications
Abstract
Lipoxygenases (LOXs) play vital roles in plant growth and defense. In this study, through genomic and molecular analyses, we discover a major LOX gene (LOX-A4) differentially expressed in Triticum urartu (Tu), the diploid progenitor of A subgenome in polyploid wheat. Compared to Tu accessions carrying wild type gene (LOX-A4W), those bearing mutant allele (LOX-A4m) show better growth but lower stress tolerance. These differences concur with a wider geographical distribution of LOX-A4m accessions than LOX-A4W materials in the Fertile Crescent. Interestingly, only mutant LOX-A4 alleles are detected in 3,516 worldwide tetraploid and hexaploid wheat lines; restoring LOX-A4W expression in common wheat inhibits growth but enhances stress tolerance. Furthermore, genome-wide identity-by-state analysis reveals that polyploid wheat A subgenome is more related to the A genome in 13 LOX-A4m Tu accessions. Thus, our work provides evidence that LOX gene variation shapes plant gene pools and their contributions to polyploid genome formation via regulating growth-defense trade-offs.
