Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a key regulator ZmEREB14 affecting shoot apex development and yield formation in maize
Date
2024-12-04
Authors
Ma, Langlang
Zhang, Na
Liu, Peng
Liang, Yuru
Li, Ran
Yuan, Guangsheng
Zou, Chaoying
Chen, Zhong
Pan, Guangtang
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Abstract
Shoot apical meristem (SAM) is the origin of aerial structure formation in the plant life cycle. However, the mechanisms underlying the maize SAM development are still obscure. Here, approximately 12 700 cells were captured from the 5-day-old shoot apex of maize using a high-throughput single-cell transcriptome sequencing. According to the gene expression patterns, we partitioned the cells into 8 cell types with 13 transcriptionally distinct cell clusters and traced the developmental trajectory of shoot apex. Regulatory network analysis of transcription factors (TFs) showed that three core TFs, AP2-EREBP-transcription factor 14 (ZmEREB14, Zm00001d052087), MYB histone 4 (ZmMYB4) and HSF-transcription factor 8 (ZmHSF8) potentially regulated the SAM development. Functional validation revealed that ZmEREB14 affected the SAM development and thereby regulated the maize yield formation. Our results characterised the inherent heterogeneity of SAM at single-cell resolution and provided new insights into the mechanisms of SAM development.
Series Number
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Academic or Administrative Unit
Type
article
Comments
This article is published as Ma, L., Zhang, N., Liu, P., Liang, Y., Li, R., Yuan, G., Zou, C., Chen, Z., L€ubberstedt, T., Pan, G. and Shen, Y. (2024) Single-cell RNA
sequencing reveals a key regulator ZmEREB14 affecting shoot apex development and yield formation in maize. Plant Biotechnol. J., https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14537.
Rights Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Copyright
Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF1000303) and National Nature Science Foundation of China (32101777 and 32072073).