@article{Qiao2025, 
author = {Linyi Qiao and Tian Li and Shujuan Liu and Xueqi Zhang and Min Fan and Xiaojun Zhang and Xin Li and Zujun Yang and Juqing Jia and Ling Qiao and Zhijian Chang and Liuling Yan},
title = {Ali-A1 and TPL1 proteins interactively modulate awn development in wheat},
year = {2025},
journal = {The Crop Journal},
volume = {13},
number = {2},
pages = {468-479},
keywords = {ALI protein, TPL protein, Awn, Auxin, Wheat},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1016/j.cj.2025.01.012},
doi = {10.1016/j.cj.2025.01.012},
abstract = {The awn can contribute to photosynthesis and carbohydrates, enhancing grain yield in wheat. We mapped QAwn.sxau-5A, a major QTL for awn development in wheat (Triticum aestivum). This QTL was delimited to a 994-kb interval at the B1 locus on chromosome 5A, which included the candidate gene encoding a zinc finger protein (TraesCS5A01G542800) as an awn length inhibitor (ALI). The Ali-A1 allele for the awnless trait showed abundant sequence differences in the promoter regions compared to the ali-A1 allele for the long-awn trait. The results of the swap experiment on the promoters from the two ALI-A1 alleles showed that the two promoters caused a difference in the protein level, indicating the gene was regulated at the transcript level. However, the ali-A1 allele contained an SNP that caused a premature stop codon in its coding region, resulting in a truncated protein compared to the functional Ali-A1 protein. The Ali-A1 protein contained two ethylene-responsive element binding factor-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR) motifs, one at the N terminus (EAR-N) and the other at the C terminus (EAR-C), and they were involved in interactions with the wheat co-repressor protein TOPLESS (TPL1). The ali-A1 protein retained the EAR-N motif but lost the EAR-C motif, resulting in the attenuated ability to interact with TPL1. The tpl1 mutant produced a longer awn compared to the wild type. Ali-A1 repressed the transcription of two downstream genes, TaLRP-A1 and TaARF-B1, involved in endogenous auxin concentrations and auxin responses in wheat. We concluded that the awn length is regulated not only by the ALI-A1 gene at transcript levels but also by Ali-A1 and TPL1 at the protein level in wheat.}
}