A Genome-wide Association Study Identifies a Transporter for Zinc Uploading to Maize Kernels

Overview

Journal EMBO Rep

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2022 Nov 17

PMID 36394374

Authors

Zhen-Fei Chao

Yuan-Yuan Chen

Chen Ji

Ya-Ling Wang

Xing Huang

Chu-Ying Zhang

Jun Yang

Tao Song

Jia-Chen Wu

Liang-Xing Guo

Chu-Bin Liu

Mei-Ling Han

Yong-Rui Wu

Jianbing Yan

Dai-Yin Chao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Zn content in cereal seeds is an important trait for crop production as well as for human health. However, little is known about how Zn is loaded to plant seeds. Here, through a genome-wide association study (GWAS), we identify the Zn-NA (nicotianamine) transporter gene ZmYSL2 that is responsible for loading Zn to maize kernels. High promoter sequence variation in ZmYSL2 most likely drives the natural variation in Zn concentrations in maize kernels. ZmYSL2 is specifically localized on the plasma membrane facing the maternal tissue of the basal endosperm transfer cell layer (BETL) and functions in loading Zn-NA into the BETL. Overexpression of ZmYSL2 increases the Zn concentration in the kernels by 31.6%, which achieves the goal of Zn biofortification of maize. These findings resolve the mystery underlying the loading of Zn into plant seeds, providing an efficient strategy for breeding or engineering maize varieties with enriched Zn nutrition.

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