According to researchers at North Carolina State University, an important gene in maize called HPC1 is related to the progenitor of modern-day corn that grows wild in the highlands of Mexico. Implications for corn and other crops' adaptation to low temperatures are provided by the findings.
"We are interested in understanding how natural variation of lipids are involved in the growth and development of plants, and how these compounds may help plants adapt to their immediate environments," said Rubén Relln-lvarez. We wanted to learn more about the role of variation inlipids and their role in adaptation to cold and low phosphorus, as well as the regulation of important processes for plant fitness and yield.
Special accommodations are needed in order to grow maize at high altitudes. When compared with maize grown at lower altitudes and higher temperatures, maize is a little disadvantaged.
Corn needs to accumulate heat or growth units in order to grow at high altitudes. It takes three times more time to make a maize plant at 10,000 feet. Smallholder farmers must plant early in the season and deep in the soil in order to adapt to these special conditions. Campesinos have been selecting maize varieties that can thrive in these special conditions by being able to grow and flower early in the winter.
The researchers say that theHPC1 gene comes in that location. Most of the corn grown in the United States is grown in corn that has been broken down by the genes.
The building blocks of cell membranes are made of phospholipids. Allison Barnes is a researcher in Relln-lvarez's lab and co-first author of the paper.
The gene fails in the mountains, but it works out in the end.
Relln-lvarez said that high levels of phospholipids were caused by the selection of a faulty version of the genes. The metabolism of the gene was confirmed with the development of a CRISPR-Cas9 Mutant. We showed that there were similar interactions in other species.
The plant may be able to survive the adverse environment if the conjugates are not broken down in the highlands.
In the paper, the researchers show the results of many experiments throughout Mexico in which the highland version of the genes was present. Plants with the highlands version of the gene flowered one day earlier than plants without it. Corn grown in the lowlands with the highlands version of the genes flowered a day later than plants without that version.
Fausto Rodrguez-Zapata is a PhD student in Relln-lvarez's lab. It's not surprising that something involved in flowering time is also involved in local adaptation.
Through thousands of years of farmer selection, the study looked at maize's evolution. The Native Americans domesticated maize thousands of years ago in southwest Mexico from a wild plant called teosinte parviglumis, and with great ingenuity, brought and adapted maize across the Americas.
The results show that the mixture of maize with teosinte mexicana is relevant in modern corn.
Genetic pieces from teosinte mexicana have been found in modern-day maize.
Modern-day humans retain bits of Neanderthal in their genetic code. Rodrguez-Zapata said that the pieces have been retained because of their selection over time.
It makes sense that the highlands variant of HPC1 is found in corn grown in Canada, the northern United States and northern Europe because of the colder climate there.
The NC State researchers are studying the role of this and other genes involved in phosphorus metabolism to learn more sustainable ways of growing maize and possibly bringing more teosinte mexicana into modern corn.
The paper was published in the national academy of sciences The paper was co-authored by researchers from Penn State University.
More information: Allison C. Barnes et al, An adaptive teosinte mexicana introgression modulates phosphatidylcholine levels and is associated with maize flowering time, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2100036119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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