Cloning and functional characterization of Rht8, a “Green Revolution” replacement gene in wheat
Hongchun Xiong, Chunyun Zhou, Meiyu Fu, Huijun Guo, Yongdun Xie, Linshu Zhao, Jiayu Gu, Shirong Zhao, Yuping Ding, Yuting Li, Jiazi Zhang, Ke Wang, Xuejun Li, Luxiang Liu
Abstract
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a major staple crop in the world and provides ∼20% of the food calories for human consumption (Appels et al., 2018). During the 1960s and 1970s, the introduction of two semi-dwarfing genes Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b in wheat varieties strikingly improved lodging resistance and harvest index, and therefore substantially increased grain yield, resulting in the well-known “Green Revolution” (Peng et al., 1999). However, plants carrying Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b suffer from several drawbacks, such as reduced coleoptile length and weak seedling vigor, which limit their cultivation in warm and dry environments (Rebetzke et al., 1999).