Seed germination ability is related to the production of corn and the development of corn industry. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the molecular mechanism of seed germination.

Recently, Professor Shen Yaou’s team of corn Research Institute published the title “GWAS and transcriptome analysis revealmads26involved in seed germination ability in maize” in the famous journal of Agronomic and Applied Genetics (top, zone 1, Chinese Academy of Sciences, if = 5.699) (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-022-04065-4) Research results. In this study, a candidate gene zm00001d017932, which encodes mads26 protein, was mined by using the method of forward genetics (genome-wide association analysis) combined with the dynamic transcriptome data of multiple stages of seed germination. The candidate gene association analysis showed that there were two SNPs in the promoter region and one SNP in the first promoter region, which were significantly correlated with seed germination rate. GUS（ β- The determination of glucosidase activity confirmed that the variation of promoter region was significantly correlated with the expression. Previous studies have shown that mads26 has a regulatory relationship with ethylene. The researchers analyzed the underground and aboveground expression patterns of different haplotypes under control and ethylene treatment, and confirmed that ethylene promotes the expression of mads26 gene. Then, the haplotype seeds with low germination rate were treated with ethylene. The results showed that the seed germination ability was significantly improved after ethylene treatment. In order to further understand the function of the gene, the researchers subcellular localization of mads26 protein in maize protoplasm and overexpression of mads26 gene. The results showed that mads26 protein was localized to the nucleus, and overexpression of mads26 gene could improve the germination rate of seeds. This study laid a good foundation for the analysis of the molecular mechanism of maize seed germination.

The first author of this study is Ma Langlang, a young teacher, Wang Chen, a master’s student, and Professor Shen Yaou is the corresponding author. Professor Pan GUANGTANG, teacher Zou Chaoying, graduated doctoral student Zhang Yinchao and graduate student Hu Yuying also made important contributions. The research was supported by the national key R & D plan, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the double branch plan of Sichuan Agricultural University and other projects.