Postdomestication selection of MKK3 shaped seed dormancy and end-use traits in barley
Anthropogenic selection of grain traits such as dormancy has shaped the developmental trajectories of crops. In cereals, shortening dormancy provides rapid and even postharvest germination, but increases the risk of weather-induced preharvest sprouting, with yearly harvest losses beyond 1 billion dollars. Our understanding of how, why, when, and where cereal dormancy diversification arose is fragmentary. Here, we show in the founder crop barley (<i>Hordeum vulgare</i>) that dormancy is primarily regulated through a mosaic of locus haplotypes comprising copy number variation and inherent kinase activity of <i>Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 3</i> (<i>MKK3</i>). We provide evidence supporting the historical selection of specific <i>MKK3</i> haplotypes that shaped dormancy levels according to changing climatic pressures and outline a genetic framework for breeders to balance grain dormancy and preharvest sprouting avoidance.
Authors
- Geoffrey B. Fincher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4703-3494)
- Cynthia Voss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2600-9957)
- Martin Toft Simmelsgaard Nielsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0358-434X)
- Pierre-Marie Le Roux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2308-9104)
- Miriam Schreiber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3732-8822)
- Martin Mascher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6373-6013)
- Fahu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8874-1035)
- Benjamin Jaegle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2679-1328)
- Eske Willerslev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7081-6748)
- Micha Bayer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-3115)
- Shingo Nakamura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-0314)
- Dagmara Podzimska‐Sroka
- Zoran Gojković (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2659-3743)
- Qiongxian Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1358-2623)
- Birgitte Skadhauge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7317-4376)
- Nils Stein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3011-8731)
- Zihao Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0086-6763)
- Christoph Dockter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5923-3667)
- Christian B. Andersen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0824-8337)
- Hanne Cecilie Thomsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9514-8769)
- Yuanyang Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1231-3111)
- J.A. Cuesta-Seijo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3755-9305)
- Pai Pedas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6733-7300)
- Haoran Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8847-4002)
- Dominique Vequaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7877-6587)
- Amanda Box (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6984-9668)
- Robbie Waugh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1045-3065)
- Kazuhiro Sato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8818-5203)
- Magnus Wohlfahrt Rasmussen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6720-8832)
- Emiko Murozuka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2191-7358)
- Sandip M. Kale (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0665-5094)
- M. Spannagl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0701-7035)
- Morten Egevang Jørgensen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6503-0495)
- Sophia Tulloch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1259-9607)
- Pierre A. Pin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7098-7627)
- Katarzyna Braune (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5390-4079)
- Yucheng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7838-226X)
- Joanne Russell
- Nina W. Thomsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0913-5504)
- Flavia Krsticevic
- Antoine Lozier
Institutions
- Setsunan University (JP)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- iRobot (United States) (US)
- James Hutton Institute (GB)
- Okayama University (JP)
- Murdoch University (AU)
- University of Dundee (GB)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Carlsberg Laboratory (DK)
- Helmholtz Zentrum München (DE)
- Sustainability Institute (ZA)
- Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung (IPK) (DE)
- Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN)
- Kazusa DNA Research Institute (JP)
- Institute of Crop Science (JP)
- Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Chuo High School (JP)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- The University of Adelaide (AU)
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE)
- Lanzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adx2022
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Seed Germination and Physiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.00