Superior alleles of SEED-AGING GENE 9 enhance seed storability and dormancy in rice

作者：Fulin Zhang, Wenchao Chi, Jiawei Song, Xingjie Zhu, Ping Wang, Yingying Chen, Tengfei Ma, Ziyan Zhu, Qixian Hao, Qingkai Wang, Ye Chen, K. L. Li, Boliang Lu, Y N Wu, Changling Mou, Yunshuai Huang, Hongming Wu, Rong Miao, Qiuyun Lin, Penghui Cao, Shijia Liu, Ling Jiang, Jianmin Wan · 发表于：National Science Review · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1093/nsr/nwag248 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Seed Germination and Physiology、Plant Molecular Biology Research、Soybean genetics and cultivation

ABSTRACT High-quality seeds necessitate both appropriate dormancy to prevent preharvest sprouting and robust storability to preserve germination vigor, which serve as the fundamental guarantee for the successful production and safe storage of crops. As complex and quantitative traits, the improvement of seed quality has been impeded by limited understanding of their regulatory genes. Here, in rice, we identify SEED-AGING GENE 9 (SAG9), encoding a nuclear protein, as a negative regulator underlying the major seed-storability quantitative trait locus qSS-9, which also exerts a moderate effect on dormancy. Indeed, SAG9 physically interacts with selected bZIP transcription factors expressed in seeds, inhibiting their transcriptional activation of Late Embryogenesis Abundant genes—revealing a shared genetic pathway coordinating dormancy and storability. This has driven the differential local adaptation of SAG9 distinct haplotypes, thereby promoting balancing selection during rice domestication. Notably, the elite SAG9 haplotype Hap− has been largely lost during domestication, which is one of the causes for the reduction in seed dormancy and storability of modern varieties. Furthermore, strong-dormancy alleles (SD1, SDR3.1, Sdr4, SD6, and Rc) enhance storability and show additive effects with SAG9 Hap−. Diverse pyramiding combinations of these genes across regions reflect synergistic adaptation to environmental or breeding demands. Collectively, our study elucidates the molecular a...