Tianyu Lan

Barley inflorescence development under high ambient temperatures

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is one of the most important cereal crop worldwide due to its highly demand for the animal feed and the alcohol production. As a temperate cereal, climate change especially the global warming become a challenge for barley production. Thus, understanding of the molecular mechanism of barley inflorescence development under high ambient temperature will provide great knowledge to develop thermally resilient cultivars. Barley inflorescence development, such as spikelet primordium initiation, floral organ differentiation and floret fertility, are primarily regulated by a variety of key regulatory genes, phytohormones and sugars levels in inflorescence. In cereal crop, the number of spikelet primordia determines the floret number and thus grain number. The study in our group have demonstrated that the expression of FLOWERING LOCUS T-like genes correlated with improved inflorescence activity under high ambient temperature.However, how these flowering time regulators control inflorescence activity under high ambient temperatures is unknown.

The objectives of my study are: i) to characterize the role of microRNAs in regulating inflorescence development under high ambient temperature; ii) to understand the transcriptional regulation of flowering time genes on inflorescence development under high ambient temperature; iii) to test the effect of high temperatures on phytohormones as well as sugar levels in the inflorescences of barley wild type and mutant plants. 

Starting date: 15.04.2019 / Associated Doctoral Researcher

Thesis committee members: Maria von Korff Schmising, Rüdiger Simon

Publications:

Kuzay S, Lin H, Li C, Chen S, Woods DP, Zhang J, Lan T, von Korff M, Dubcovsky J. WAPO-A1 is the causal gene of the 7AL QTL for spikelet number per spike in wheat. PLoS Genet. 2022 Jan 13;18(1):e1009747. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009747

Zhong J, van Esse GW, Bi X, Lan T, Walla A, Sang Q, Franzen R, and von Korff M (2020) INTERMEDIUM-M encodes an HvAP2L-H5 ortholog and is required for inflorescence indeterminacy and spikelet determinacy in barley, PNAS 118 (8) e2011779118 doi 10.1073/pnas.2011779118