microRNA172 plays a critical role in wheat spike morphology and grain threshability

Wheat domestication from wild species involved mutations in the Q gene. The q allele (wild wheats) is associated with elongated spikes and hulled grains, whereas the mutant Q allele (domesticated wheats) confers subcompact spikes and free-threshing grains. Previous studies showed that Q encodes an AP2-like transcription factor, but the causal polymorphism of the domestication traits remained unclear. Here we show that the interaction between...