Integrative Biology Journals
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J Integr Plant Biol.

• Research Article •    

The transcription factor LF1 controls compound leaf development by interacting with GmTCP3 and the GmLFY signaling network

Xuemei He1,2†, Min Zhang1†*, Yanting Shen3†, Lei Fan1, Zongbiao Duan3, Rui Yang1, Zheng Wang4, Min Wang1, Yucheng Liu1, Yi Pan1, Xin Ma1, Shan Liang1, Guoan Zhou3, Shulin Liu3, Jianlin Wang1,5 and Zhixi Tian1,2,3*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Seed Innovation, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

    3. Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Sanya 572024, China

    4. State Key Laboratory of Vegetable Biobreeding, Beijing Vegetable Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

    5. Zhongke‐Dongying Research Center of Molecular Designed Breeding, Dongying 257000, China

    †These authors contributed equally to this work.

    *Correspondences: Zhixi Tian (tianzhixi@yzwlab.cn); Min Zhang (zhangmin@genetics.ac.cn, Dr. Zhang is fully responsible for the distribution of all materials associated with this article)

  • Received:2025-01-25 Accepted:2025-10-03 Online:2025-11-26
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by Biological Breeding‐National Science and Technology Major Project (2023ZD04076), The Taishan Scholars Program, the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no.2022YFD1201503, 2023YFD1200600), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 32272107).

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Abstract:

Leaf morphology varies substantially across plant species. In soybeans, the regulation of compound leaf development remains poorly characterized, despite its critical role in plant architecture. Some soybean cultivars have compound leaves with up to five leaflets, while most are trifoliolate. Using genetic mapping, we identified a gene behind the leaflet number variation as LF1, an AP2/ERF transcription factor. High expression levels of LF1 were further observed in leaf primordium initiation sites, leaf primordia, and leaflet initiation domains. Transgenic overexpression of LF1 increased leaflet number. Further investigation revealed that LF1 regulates leaflet development through negative autoregulation via GCC-box cis-element binding. In addition to the role of LF1, the CRISPR-edited mutant of TEOSINTE-BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF3 (GmTCP3) displayed serrated blade margins in juvenile leaves and increased compound leaflet numbers. Protein interaction assays confirmed LF1 binding affinity for GmTCP3. Furthermore, we demonstrate that LF1 induces the expression of GmLFY, a key regulator of leaflet development. Altogether, our findings establish LF1 as a central regulator of soybean leaflet morphogenesis and reveal its mechanistic interactions with GmTCP3 and LEAFY (GmLFY), offering novel mechanistic insights into the genetic control of compound leaf development.

Key words: compound leaf, GWAS, lea?et, LF1, soybean

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