Abstract
Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is an important crop species and an emerging model plant for C4 grasses. However, functional genomics research on foxtail millet is challenging because of its long generation time, relatively large stature and recalcitrance to genetic transformation. Here we report the development of xiaomi, a rapid-cycling mini foxtail millet mutant as a C4 model system. Five to six generations of xiaomi can be grown in a year in growth chambers due to its short life cycle and small plant size, similar to Arabidopsis. A point mutation in the Phytochrome C (PHYC) gene was found to be causal for these characteristics. PHYC encodes a light receptor essential for photoperiodic flowering. A reference-grade xiaomi genome comprising 429.94 Mb of sequence was assembled and a gene-expression atlas from 11 different tissues was developed. These resources, together with an established highly efficient transformation system and a multi-omics database, make xiaomi an ideal model system for functional studies of C4 plants.
Highlights
N xiaomi and WT in seed size, as represented by the 1,000-grain weight
We have recently developed a large foxtail millet ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) mutant population using Jingu21 – a high-yield, high-grain-quality elite variety widely grown in North China in the past few decades
We identified an 73 extremely mini-mutant with a life cycle similar to Arabidopsis
Summary
This should be the name If you are citing a reference for the first time in these legends, please include all new the file is saved as when references in the Online Methods References section, and carry on the numbering it is uploaded to our from the main References section of the paper. ≥ 20 plants was measured for each replicate (n = 3 biologically independent replicates, ≥ 102 in total). The bottom and top of boxes represent the first and third quartile, respectively. The middle line is the median and the whiskers represent the maximum and minimum values. The plant height of ≥ 23 plants was measured for each replicate Exons and introns are denoted by filled boxes and lines, respectively. P2F and P2R represent a pair of primers used to amplify the fragments harboring the mutation site from the segregating M3 individuals (Primer sequences are listed in Supplementary Table 3). PHYC protein in Jingu[21] is presented as for Setaria italica (Si9G09200)
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