N-terminal truncated RHT-1 proteins generated by translational reinitiation cause semi-dwarfing of wheat Green Revolution alleles

The unprecedented wheat yield increases during the Green Revolution were achieved through introduction of Reduced height (Rht)-B1b and Rht-D1b semi-dwarfing alleles. These Rht-1 alleles encode growth-repressing DELLA genes containing a stop codon within their open reading frame that confers gibberellin (GA)-insensitive semi-dwarfism. In this study, we successfully took hurdle detecting wild-type RHT-1 proteins in different organs confirmed degradation response to GAs. We further demonstrated Rht-B1b produce N-terminal truncated translational reinitiation. Expression these transgenic lines Rht-D1c, an allele multiple copies, ability cause strong dwarfism, resulting from insensitivity GA-mediated degradation. detected spikes nodes, but not aleurone layers. Since dwarfism have dormancy, finding suggests tissue-specific differences reinitiation may explain why reduce plant without affecting dormancy. Taken together, our findings only reveal molecular mechanism underlying also demonstrate main occurs plants.