A new branch of understanding for barley inflorescence development

Abstract

Genetic diversity for inflorescence architecture has helped improve the yields of our modern cereals. In barley, enhanced fertility of lateral spikelets has underpinned the generation of higher-yielding six-rowed cultivars, relative to their two-rowed progenitors. The genetic basis of lateral spikelet fertility has been wellcharacterised; however, very little is known of genes controlling other aspects of barley inflorescence architecture. Now, Shang et al. (2020) report on the identification of BRANCHED AND INDETERMINATE SPIKELET 1 (BDI1), which encodes a CYC/TB1 type TCP transcription factor that represses inflorescence branching. In partnership with reports in rice and maize, these findings provide insights into genes controlling the diverse inflorescence architectures of cereals.