J Integr Plant Biol

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  • 收稿日期:2025-03-04 接受日期:2025-07-15

The miR172a-ERF416/413 module regulates soybean seed traits

Meng Jin1,2†, Jia‐Qi Han1,2†, Lu‐Yao Zhang1,2, Zhi‐Hao Jiang1,2, Yue Liu1,2, Jun‐Jie Wei1,2, Ling‐Yi Zheng1,2, Shang‐Shang Xiong1,2, Yang Hu1, Tong Cheng1, Xiao‐Hua Bian1, Chun‐Mei Wu1, Wei Wei1, Yi‐Hua Huang1, Cui‐Cui Yin1, Feng Gao3, Wei Li4, Ying‐Dong Bi4, Yong‐Cai Lai4, Bin Zhou5, De‐Yue Yu6, Shou‐Yi Chen1, Jian‐Jun Tao1*, Wan‐Ke Zhang1* and Jin‐Song Zhang1,2*   

  1. 1. State Key Lab of Seed Innovation, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2. College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Qilu Zhongke Academy of Modern Microbiology Technology, Jinan 250018, China
    4. Crop Tillage and Cultivation Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150086, China
    5. Crop Research Institute of Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
    6. National Center for Soybean Improvement, National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

    †These authors contributed equally to the work.
    *Correspondences: Jian‐Jun Tao (jjtao@genetics.ac.cn); Wan‐Ke Zhang (wkzhang@genetics.ac.cn); Jin‐Song Zhang (jszhang@genetics.ac.cn, Dr. Zhang is fully responsible for the distribution of all materials associated with this article)
  • Received:2025-03-04 Accepted:2025-07-15
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32090062, 32090063, 32171930), the National Key R&D Program (2021YFF1000104, 2023YFD1200602), and the Biological Breeding‐National Science and Technology Major Project (2024ZD04078).

Abstract: Soybean (Glycine max) provides vegetable oils and proteins for human consumption. Its production depends on seeds and other production-related agronomic traits. How the seed traits are regulated in soybean remains largely unclear. In this study, we identified a miR172a-ERF416/413 module for the regulation of seed traits. The miR172a can cleave the targets ERF416 and ERF413 to affect the downstream gene expression for the reduction of soybean seed size and weight. Both the MIR172a-overexpressing transgenic soybean plants and the erf416/413 mutants produced smaller seeds than the control. Consistently, the ERF416-overexpressing transgenic soybean plants generated larger seeds. ERF416 and ERF413 were directly targeted to the promoter of GmKIX8-1 and GmSWEET10a to regulate their gene expression for seed size/weight control. Interestingly, the erf416/413 mutants showed higher seed yield per plant and higher total seed fatty acid (FA) content, whereas the MIR172a-transgenic soybean had lower total seed FA content compared with the control cultivar, suggesting that miR172a and ERF416/413 may function in FA accumulation through different pathways. Haplotypes of the ERF416 promoter region were further analyzed and Hap1 was correlated with higher gene expression and higher seed weight, while Hap3 was correlated with higher total seed lipid content. Our study revealed a new module for seed trait control. Manipulation of such alleles should facilitate breeding for high-oil and high-yield soybean cultivars.

Key words: ERF416/ERF413 transcription factors, fatty acids, miR172a, seed size/weight, soybean

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