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Science 24 November 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5803, pp. 1298 - 1301
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133649
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Reports

A NAC Gene Regulating Senescence Improves Grain Protein, Zinc, and Iron Content in Wheat

Cristobal Uauy,1* Assaf Distelfeld,2* Tzion Fahima,2 Ann Blechl,3 Jorge Dubcovsky1{dagger}

Enhancing the nutritional value of food crops is a means of improving human nutrition and health. We report here the positional cloning of Gpc-B1, a wheat quantitative trait locus associated with increased grain protein, zinc, and iron content. The ancestral wild wheat allele encodes a NAC transcription factor (NAM-B1) that accelerates senescence and increases nutrient remobilization from leaves to developing grains, whereas modern wheat varieties carry a nonfunctional NAM-B1 allele. Reduction in RNA levels of the multiple NAM homologs by RNA interference delayed senescence by more than 3 weeks and reduced wheat grain protein, zinc, and iron content by more than 30%.

1 Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
2 Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel.
3 United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jdubcovsky{at}ucdavis.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)