Abstract
Meiotic recombination is a critical process for plant breeding, as it creates novel allele combinations that can be exploited for crop improvement. In wheat, a complex allohexaploid that has a diploid-like behaviour, meiotic recombination between homoeologous or alien chromosomes is suppressed through the action of several loci. Here, we report positional cloning of Pairing homoeologous 2 (Ph2) and functional validation of the wheat DNA mismatch repair protein MSH7-3D as a key inhibitor of homoeologous recombination, thus solving a half-century-old question. Similar to ph2 mutant phenotype, we show that mutating MSH7-3D induces a substantial increase in homoeologous recombination (up to 5.5 fold) in wheat-wild relative hybrids, which is also associated with a reduction in homologous recombination. These data reveal a role for MSH7-3D in meiotic stabilisation of allopolyploidy and provides an opportunity to improve wheat’s genetic diversity through alien gene introgression, a major bottleneck facing crop improvement.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Generated from Scopus record by KAUST IRTS on 2023-10-23ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Chemistry
- General Physics and Astronomy