Please wait a minute...
Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2026, Vol. 25 Issue (7): 3086-3089    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2026.03.051
Letter Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
TaPRR95 regulates wheat flowering time and yield partially by interacting with the CONSTANS-like protein

Xinxin Cheng1, Lijun Zhang2, Ying Xu1, Yongchao Hao1, 2, Peng Jiang4, Shams ur Rehman2, Shisheng Chen2, Lingrang Kong1, Shuxin Zhang3, Hongwei Wang1, Yan Zhao1#, Guiping Wang2, 3#

1 State Key Laboratory of Wheat Improvement, College of Agronomy, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China 

2 State Key Laboratory of Wheat Improvement/Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences/Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agriculture Sciences in Weifang, Weifang 261325, China 

3 State Key Laboratory of Wheat Improvement, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China 

4 CIMMYT-JAAS Joint Center for Wheat Diseases, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China

 Highlights 
A TaPRR95-A haplotype reduces flowering time and increases grain yield in wheat.  
Protein–protein interaction between TaPRR95-A and TaCOL16-D modulates the TaFT1-mediated flowering pathway.
A validated functional marker enables rapid identification of the target haplotype and provides a practical tool for marker-assisted selection in wheat breeding.
Download:  PDF in ScienceDirect  
Export:  BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      
摘要  


小麦开花时间是决定产量潜力和环境适应性的关键农艺性状。本研究基于前期报道的一个小麦开花时间主效QTL,聚焦其候选区间附近的生物钟基因TaPRR95-A开展功能鉴定。结果表明,TaPRR95-A在长日照条件下可显著促进开花(提前4.38–6.10天),并上调成花素基因TaFT1的表达。分子机制研究发现,TaPRR95-A通过与光周期核心因子TaCOL16-D相互作用,间接激活TaFT1的表达,为理解小麦开花时间调控网络提供了新的见解。此外,本研究鉴定到一个关键自然单倍型TaPRR95-AHapII,该单倍型编码区携带12 bp缺失,导致蛋白截短4个氨基酸,与早花性状及增产(450.38–597.54 kg·hm-²)显著相关。基于该多态性位点开发的功能分子标记,可用于早熟高产小麦品种的选育。本研究不仅阐明了开花调控的新机制,还为培育气候适应性小麦品种提供了重要的遗传工具。




Received: 09 December 2025   Accepted: 18 February 2026 Online: 24 March 2026  
Fund: 

The authors thank the transformation facility at the Shandong Agricultural University for their assistance with the wheat genetic transformation.  This study was supported by the Key R&D Program of Shandong Province, China (2023LZGC022), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (ZR2023QC103), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U23A20181).

About author:  Xinxin Cheng, E-mail: chengxx0120@163.com; #Correspondence Yan Zhao, E-mail: yzhao1216@sdau.edu.cn; Guiping Wang, E-mail: wgp03165@163.com

Cite this article: 

Xinxin Cheng, Lijun Zhang, Ying Xu, Yongchao Hao, Peng Jiang, Shams ur Rehman, Shisheng Chen, Lingrang Kong, Shuxin Zhang, Hongwei Wang, Yan Zhao, Guiping Wang. 2026. TaPRR95 regulates wheat flowering time and yield partially by interacting with the CONSTANS-like protein. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 25(7): 3086-3089.

Beales J, Turner A, Griffiths S, Snape J W, Laurie D A. 2007. A Pseudo-Response Regulator is misexpressed in the photoperiod insensitive Ppd-D1a mutant of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics115, 721–733.

Boden S A, Cavanagh C, Cullis B R, Ramm K, Greenwood J, Jean Finnegan E, Trevaskis B, Swain S M. 2015. Ppd-1 is a key regulator of inflorescence architecture and paired spikelet development in wheat. Nature Plants1, 1–6.

Farré E M, Liu T. 2013. The PRR family of transcriptional regulators reflects the complexity and evolution of plant circadian clocks. Current Opinion in Plant Biology16, 621–629.

Fu M, Liu S, Che Y, Cui D, Deng Z, Li Y, Zou X, Kong X, Chen G, Zhang M, Liu Y, Wang X, Liu W, Liu D, Geng S, Li A, Mao L. 2024. Genome-editing of a circadian clock gene TaPRR95 facilitates wheat peduncle growth and heading date. Journal of Genetics and Genomics51, 1101–1110.

Hayama R, Sarid-Krebs L, Richter R, Fernández V, Jang S, Coupland G. 2017. PSEUDO RESPONSE REGULATORs stabilize CONSTANS protein to promote flowering in response to day length. The EMBO Journal36, 904–918.

Hu J, Wang X, Zhang G, Jiang P, Chen W, Hao Y, Ma X, Xu S, Jia J, Kong L, Wang H. 2020. QTL mapping for yield-related traits in wheat based on four RIL populations. Theoretical and Applied Genetics133, 917–933.

Hultgren A, Carleton T, Delgado M, Gergel D R, Greenstone M, Houser T, Hsiang S, Jina A, Kopp R E, Malevich S B, Mccusker K E, Mayer T, Nath I, Rising J, Rode A, Yuan J. 2025. Impacts of climate change on global agriculture accounting for adaptation. Nature642, 644–652.

Li N, Zhang Y, He Y, Wang Y, Wang L. 2020. Pseudo response regulators regulate photoperiodic hypocotyl growth by repressing PIF4/5 transcription. Plant Physiology183, 686–699.

Liu S, Li K, Dai X, Qin G, Lu D, Gao Z, Li X, Song B, Bian J, Ren D, Liu Y, Chen X, Xu Y, Liu W, Yang C, Liu X, Chen S, Li J, Li B, He H, et al. 2025. A telomere-to-telomere genome assembly coupled with multi-omic data provides insights into the evolution of hexaploid bread wheat. Nature Genetics57, 1008–1020.

Liu Z, Liu W, Wang Z, Xie Z, Qi K, Yue D, Li Y, Zhang S, Wu J, Wang P. 2024. Molecular characterization of PSEUDO RESPONSE REGULATOR family in Rosaceae and function of PbPRR59a and PbPRR59b in flowering regulation. BMC Genomics25, 794.

Matsushika A, Murakami M, Ito S, Nakamichi N, Yamashino T, Mizuno T. 2007. Characterization of circadian-associated pseudo-response regulators: I. Comparative studies on a series of transgenic lines misexpressing five distinctive PRR genes in Arabidopsis thalianaBioscienceBiotechnologyand Biochemistry71, 527–534.

Nakamichi N, Kiba T, Henriques R, Mizuno T, Chua N H, Sakakibara H. 2010. PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATORS 9, 7, and 5 are transcriptional repressors in the Arabidopsis circadian clock. The Plant Cell22, 594–605.

Niinuma K, Nakamichi N, Miyata K, Mizuno T, Kamada H, Mizoguchi T. 2008. Roles of Arabidopsis PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR (PRR) genes in the opposite controls of flowering time and organ elongation under long-day and continuous light conditions. Plant Biotechnology25, 165–172.

Ortiz-Bobea A, Ault T R, Carrillo C M, Chambers R G, Lobell D B. 2021. Anthropogenic climate change has slowed global agricultural productivity growth. Nature Climate Change11, 306–312.

Sharma K, Sharma P K. 2025. Wheat as a nutritional powerhouse: Shaping global food security. In: Meena V S, Jaiswal J P, Jinger D, Paramesh V, eds., Triticum-The Pillar of Global Food SecurityAgricultural Sciences. IntechOpen Publishing, London, UK.

Turner A, Beales J, Faure S, Dunford R P, Laurie D A. 2005. The pseudo-response regulator Ppd-H1 provides adaptation to photoperiod in barley. Science310, 1031–1034.

Wang X, Dong L, Hu J, Pang Y, Hu L, Xiao G, Ma X, Kong X, Jia J, Wang H, Kong L. 2019. Dissecting genetic loci affecting grain morphological traits to improve grain weight via nested association mapping. Theoretical and Applied Genetics132, 3115–3128.

Wang X, Zhang J, Liu X, Kong Y, Han L. 2023. The roles of the PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATORs in circadian clock and flowering time in Medicago truncatulaInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences2416834.

Zhang X, Jia H, Li T, Wu J, Nagarajan R, Lei L, Powers C, Kan C C, Hua W, Liu Z, Chen C, Carver B F, Yan L. 2022. TaCol-B5 modifies spike architecture and enhances grain yield in wheat. Science376, 180–183.

No related articles found!
No Suggested Reading articles found!