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‘Green revolution’ genes encode mutant gibberellin response modulators

Nature volume 400, pages 256–261 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

World wheat grain yields increased substantially in the 1960s and 1970s because farmers rapidly adopted the new varieties and cultivation methods of the so-called ‘green revolution’1,2,3,4. The new varieties are shorter, increase grain yield at the expense of straw biomass, and are more resistant to damage by wind and rain3,4. These wheats are short because they respond abnormally to the plant growth hormone gibberellin. This reduced response to gibberellin is conferred by mutant dwarfing alleles at one of two Reduced height-1 (Rht-B1 and Rht-D1) loci4,5. Here we show that Rht-B1/Rht-D1 and maize dwarf-8 (d8)6,7 are orthologues of the Arabidopsis Gibberellin Insensitive (GAI) gene8,9. These genes encode proteins that resemble nuclear transcription factors and contain an SH2-like10 domain, indicating that phosphotyrosine may participate in gibberellin signalling. Six different orthologous dwarfing mutant alleles encode proteins that are altered in a conserved amino-terminal gibberellin signalling domain. Transgenic rice plants containing a mutant GAI allele give reduced responses to gibberellin and are dwarfed, indicating that mutant GAI orthologues could be used to increase yield in a wide range of crop species.

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Figure 1: cDNA C15-1 maps to the Rht-1 locus.
Figure 2: Structural features of Rht-D1a, d8, GAI and RGA.
Figure 3: Dominant mutant alleles encode proteins with mutant N termini.
Figure 4: Basmati rice is dwarfed by a construct containing the gai ORF.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Cobb, E. Coen, G. Coupland and C. Dean for comments on the manuscript; L.Sayers for help with figures; A. Harvey, D. Lonsdale and T. Dyer for the wheat/maize cDNA/genomic DNA libraries; the International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna) for mutagenesis; T.Helentjaris for additional mapping and DNA sequencing; T. Sasaki of the Japanese Rice Genome Programme for EST clones; and the BBSRC (Core Strategic Grant to the John Innes Centre; Plant Molecular Biology II; Agricultural Systems Directorate), EU Framework IV and Pioneer Hi-Bred International for funding.

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Author notes

  1. Duraialagaraja Sudhakar

    Present address: Rice Transformation Laboratory, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641 003, India

  2. Jinrong Peng and Donald E. Richards: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, NR4 7UH, Norwich, UK

    Nigel M. Hartley, George P. Murphy, Katrien M. Devos, John E. Flintham, James Beales, Leslie J. Fish, Anthony J. Worland, Fatima Pelica, Paul Christou, John W. Snape, Michael D. Gale & Nicholas P. Harberd

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Correspondence to Nicholas P. Harberd.

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Peng, J., Richards, D., Hartley, N. et al. ‘Green revolution’ genes encode mutant gibberellin response modulators. Nature 400, 256–261 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/22307

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