Plant breeding articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  14 November 2017 | Open Access

  NOG1 increases grain production in rice

  Rice grain yield is a quantitative trait determined by multiple genes. Here, the authors find NOG1, which encodes an enoyl-CoA hydratase/isomerase in fatty acid β-oxidation pathway, can increase grain yield by enhancing grain number per panicle without affecting the other yield component traits.

  • Xing Huo
  • , Shuang Wu
  •  & Chuanqing Sun

• Article
  07 November 2017 | Open Access

  The effect of artificial selection on phenotypic plasticity in maize

  Breeding has increased crop productivity, but whether it has also changed phenotypic plasticity is unclear. Here, the authors find maize genomic regions selected for high productivity show reduced contribution to genotype by environment variation and provide evidence for regulatory control of phenotypic stability.

  • Joseph L. Gage
  • , Diego Jarquin
  •  & Natalia de Leon

• Article
  23 October 2017 | Open Access

  Single nucleus sequencing reveals spermatid chromosome fragmentation as a possible cause of maize haploid induction

  Plant breeders can produce haploid maize lines using haploid inducer lines as pollen donors. Here, by sequencing the genomes of single pollen nuclei, Li et al. show that haploid inducer spermatids are frequently aneuploid and suggest chromosome fragmentation as a possible cause of haploid induction.

  • Xiang Li
  • , Dexuan Meng
  •  & Jianbing Yan

• Article
  11 October 2017 | Open Access

  Molecular identification of the wheat male fertility gene Ms1 and its prospects for hybrid breeding

  Heterosis can rapidly boost yield in crop species but development of hybrid-breeding systems for bread wheat remains a challenge. Here, Tucker et al. describe the molecular identification of the wheat Ms1 gene and discuss its potential for large-scale hybrid seed production in wheat.

  • Elise J. Tucker
  • , Ute Baumann
  •  & Ryan Whitford

• Article
  06 June 2017 | Open Access

  Crop wild relative populations of Beta vulgaris allow direct mapping of agronomically important genes

  Variation among wild relatives of crop plants can be used to identify genes underlying traits of agronomic importance. Here, the authors show that a modified mapping-by-sequencing approach can rapidly identify the genetic basis for viral resistance in sugar beet using wild beet populations in their natural habitat.

  • Gina G. Capistrano-Gossmann
  • , D. Ries
  •  & F. J. Kopisch-Obuch

• Article
  26 May 2017 | Open Access

  Targeted recombination between homologous chromosomes for precise breeding in tomato

  Targeted homologous recombination between parental chromosomes could facilitate precision breeding of crop plants. Here, Filler Hayutet al. show that CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to induce DNA double strand breaks in somatic tissue and achieve targeted recombination between homologs at an endogenous locus in tomato.

  • Shdema Filler Hayut
  • , Cathy Melamed Bessudo
  •  & Avraham A. Levy

• Article
  23 March 2017 | Open Access

  Natural variation in CTB4a enhances rice adaptation to cold habitats

  Low temperature is a major factor limiting productivity in rice. Here the authors show that theCTB4a gene confers cold tolerance to japonicavarieties adapted to cold habitats at the booting stage of development, and propose that CTB4a acts via an interaction with the beta subunit of ATP synthase.

  • Zhanying Zhang
  • , Jinjie Li
  •  & Zichao Li

• Article
  20 March 2017 | Open Access

  A natural tandem array alleviates epigenetic repression of IPA1 and leads to superior yielding rice

  Breeding of rice with ideal plant architecture has increased rice yield worldwide. Here Zhanget al. show that, in the super rice variety YY12, this ideal plant architecture trait arose from three distal tandem repeats that are associated with an open chromatin state and increased expression of the IPA1gene.

  • Lin Zhang
  • , Hong Yu
  •  & Jiayang Li

• Article
  08 November 2016 | Open Access

  Genome-wide association study of 12 agronomic traits in peach

  Peach is both an economically important crop species and a model for Rosaceae fruit development research. Here, the authors perform genome-wide association analysis in peach and find candidate genes associated with variation in agronomically important fruit phenotypes.

  • Ke Cao
  • , Zhengkui Zhou
  •  & Lirong Wang

• Article | 08 July 2015

  Natural variation in timing of stress-responsive gene expression predicts heterosis in intraspecific hybrids of Arabidopsis

  The genetic distance between parents influences hybrid performance in plants. Here Miller et al. show that Arabidopsishybrids produced from diverse parental ecotypes have reduced expression of stress responsive genes at certain times of the day and this correlates with greater biomass production.

  • Marisa Miller
  • , Qingxin Song
  •  & Z. Jeffrey Chen

• Article
  05 February 2015 | Open Access

  Genomic analysis of hybrid rice varieties reveals numerous superior alleles that contribute to heterosis

  The principle of heterosis, whereby a hybrid variety outperforms both parents, is commonly exploited in agriculture to maximize crop yield. Here Huang et al.show that the accumulation of multiple superior alleles in hybrid varieties contributes to hybrid vigour and increased yield in rice.

  • Xuehui Huang
  • , Shihua Yang
  •  & Bin Han

• Article
  30 November 2010 | Open Access

  New approach for rice improvement using a pleiotropic QTL gene for lodging resistance and yield

  Much effort has been devoted to the generation of rice plants with short stature to improve grain yield and increased resistance to lodging. Through quantitative trait analysis, these authors identify a gene—STRONG CULM2—that confers increased grain yield, culm strength and spikelet number in rice.

  • Taiichiro Ookawa
  • , Tokunori Hobo
  •  & Makoto Matsuoka