Dissecting cis-regulatory control of quantitative trait variation in a plant stem cell circuit.

Wang, Xingang, Aguirre, Lyndsey, Rodríguez-Leal, Daniel, Hendelman, Anat, Benoit, Matthias, Lippman, Zachary B (April 2021) Dissecting cis-regulatory control of quantitative trait variation in a plant stem cell circuit. Nature Plants, 7 (4). pp. 419-427. ISSN 2055-026X

Abstract

Cis-regulatory mutations underlie important crop domestication and improvement traits1,2. However, limited allelic diversity has hindered functional dissection of the large number of cis-regulatory elements and their potential interactions, thereby precluding a deeper understanding of how cis-regulatory variation impacts traits quantitatively. Here, we engineered over 60 promoter alleles in two tomato fruit size genes3,4 to characterize cis-regulatory sequences and study their functional relationships. We found that targeted mutations in conserved promoter sequences of SlCLV3, a repressor of stem cell proliferation5,6, have a weak impact on fruit locule number. Pairwise combinations of these mutations mildly enhance this phenotype, revealing additive and synergistic relationships between conserved regions and further suggesting even higher-order cis-regulatory interactions within the SlCLV3 promoter. In contrast, SlWUS, a positive regulator of stem cell proliferation repressed by SlCLV3 (refs. 5,6), is more tolerant to promoter perturbations. Our results show that complex interplay among cis-regulatory variants can shape quantitative variation, and suggest that empirical dissections of this hidden complexity can guide promoter engineering to predictably modify crop traits.

Item Type:	Paper
Subjects:	bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > cis-regulatory elements bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > genes, structure and function > gene regulation bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > genes, structure and function > gene regulation bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > mutations organism description > plant > tomato
CSHL Authors:	Benoit, Matthias Lippman, Zachary B. Wang, Xingang Aguirre, Lyndsey Rodriguez-Leal, Daniel Hendelman, Anat
Communities:	CSHL labs > Lippman lab
SWORD Depositor:	CSHL Elements
Depositing User:	CSHL Elements
Date:	April 2021
Date Deposited:	05 May 2021 18:05
Last Modified:	05 May 2021 18:05
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/39989

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