Regulatory balance between ear rot resistance and grain yield and their breeding applications in maize and other crops
Zechao Yin, Xun Wei, Yanyong Cao, Zhenying Dong, Yan Long, Xiangyuan Wan
Abstract
• Pathogenic fungi infection causes significant reduction in crop yield and deterioration in grain quality. • Integrative analyses by using genetic and multi-omics data enable the identification of valuable genic resource. • Extensive syntenic relationships are observed among resistance-related loci for maize ER, wheat FHB, and rice RBD. • The genetic loci regulating both resistance and yield provide targets for manipulating the growth-defense trade-off. Fungi are prevalent pathogens that cause substantial yield losses of major crops. Ear rot (ER), which is primarily induced by Fusarium or Aspergillus species, poses a significant challenge to maize production worldwide. ER resistance is regulated by several small effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs). To date, only a few ER-related genes have been identified that impede molecular breeding efforts to breed ER-resistant maize varieties. Our aim here is to explore the research progress and mine genic resources related to ER resistance, and to propose a regulatory model elucidating the ER-resistant mechanism in maize as well as a trade-off model illustrating how crops balance fungal resistance and grain yield. Key Scientific Concepts of Review: This review presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the research history and current trends in the genetic and molecular regulation underlying ER resistance in maize. Moreover, we analyzed and discovered the genic resources by identifying 162 environmentally stable loci (ESLs) from various independent forward genetics studies as well as 1391 conservatively differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that respond to Fusarium or Aspergillus infection through multi-omics data analysis. Additionally, this review discusses the syntenies found among maize ER, wheat Fusarium head blight (FHB), and rice Bakanae disease (RBD) resistance-related loci, along with the significant overlap between fungal resistance loci and reported yield-related loci, thus providing valuable insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying the trade-offs between yield and defense in crops.