Global climate change and population growth pose a serious threat to world food security. The current crops varieties will be insufficient to meet food needs in the future, and there is an urgent need for high yielding and quality crops varieties with strong environmental adaptability. The rapid de novo domestication of wild species to create new germplasm that can be applied to crop breeding is a new strategy for ensuring food security. The flowering time is an important factor in determining the crop planting area and yield, and is a trait that is often selected in crop domestication. At present, the modification of flowering traits by de novo domestication is usually achieved by direct editing of the major genes that control flowering in crop, which are very limited in number and relatively homogeneous in function. Floral transition is regulated by the complex network of environmental and endogenous signals. Here, we propose a new strategy that using genome editing to precisely modify protein function by changing protein phase separation capacity of important proteins that regulate expression of flowering genes, which may provide new options for the design of flowering traits in de novo domestication.
全球气候变化和人口快速增长严重威胁世界粮食安全，现有作物难以满足人类未来的粮食需求，亟需高产优质且环境适应性强的作物品种。利用野生种质资源进行快速从头驯化，获得可应用于育种的新种质是应对粮食安全问题的新策略。开花时间性状是决定作物种植区域和最终产量的重要因素，在作物驯化中常常受到选择。目前在从头驯化中，通常直接利用控制作物开花的主效基因来改造开花性状，基因数量非常有限且功能较为单一。植物成花转变受到环境和内源性信号的复杂调控，本文提出利用调控开花基因表达的重要蛋白质的可逆行为变化——蛋白质相分离定向改造蛋白功能，从而精准控制开花相关基因的表达，可能为从头驯化中开花性状的分子设计提供新的选择。.
Keywords: