Adaptation to climate change through dense planting for sustainable agriculture

Abstract

AbstractOveruse of fertilizers increased greenhouse gases emissions, induced global climate changes and extreme weather and made future agriculture unsustainable. Engineering crops to adapt to stressed conditions is crucial. Here, we cloned a transcription factor TabZIP45 (basic region zipper), controlled by a microRNA binding site polymorphism, conferring adaptation to both nitrogen deficiency and dense planting. TabZIP45 interacted with TaFTL43 (Flowering locus T like43) to change gene expression regulation. TabZIP45 coordinated phosphatidylinositol diphosphate (PIP2) metabolism and calcium (Ca2+) signaling to adapt to environmental stresses. Knockout of TabZIP45-4B by genome editing rescued grain yield loss caused by nitrogen deficiency by modulation of TaDwarf4 under dense planting through Ca2+ signaling disruption. Thus, TabZIP45-4B edited wheat warranted a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to enhance grain yield under adverse conditions.One-Sentence SummaryCalcium and lipids integrated adverse environmental signaling to modulate plant growth