Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28114299›Full record

ArticleNature2017

MATRILINEAL, a sperm-specific phospholipase, triggers maize haploid induction.

Timothy Kelliher, Dakota Starr, Lee Richbourg, Satya Chintamanani, Brent Delzer, Michael L Nuccio, Julie Green, Zhongying Chen, Jamie McCuiston, Wenling Wang and 3 more

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 205 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
205citing papers in PubMed
14.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

205 citing papers in PubMed, 433 citations in OpenAlex.

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  20. Engineering Synthetic Apomixis in Hybrid Rice.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026
    Article

145 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Timothy KelliherSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Dakota StarrSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Lee RichbourgSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Satya ChintamananiSyngenta Seeds, 2369 330th Street, Slater, Iowa 50244, USA.
Brent DelzerSyngenta Seeds, 4133 East County Road O, Janesville, Wisconsin 53546, USA.
Michael L NuccioSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Julie GreenSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Zhongying ChenSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Jamie McCuistonSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Wenling WangSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Tara LieblerSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Paul BullockSyngenta Seeds, 2369 330th Street, Slater, Iowa 50244, USA.
Barry MartinSeeds Research, Syngenta Crop Protection, 9 Davis Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
Syngenta (United States) · USTriangle · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Sexual reproduction in flowering plants involves double fertilization, the union of two sperm from pollen with two sex cells in the female embryo sac. Modern plant breeders increasingly seek to circumvent this process to produce doubled haploid individuals, which derive from the chromosome-doubled cells of the haploid gametophyte. Doubled haploid production fixes recombinant haploid genomes in inbred lines, shaving years off the breeding process. Costly, genotype-dependent tissue culture methods are used in many crops, while seed-based in vivo doubled haploid systems are rare in nature and difficult to manage in breeding programmes. The multi-billion-dollar maize hybrid seed business, however, is supported by industrial doubled haploid pipelines using intraspecific crosses to in vivo haploid inducer males derived from Stock 6, first reported in 1959 (ref. 5), followed by colchicine treatment. Despite decades of use, the mode of action remains controversial. Here we establish, through fine mapping, genome sequencing, genetic complementation, and gene editing, that haploid induction in maize (Zea mays) is triggered by a frame-shift mutation in MATRILINEAL (MTL), a pollen-specific phospholipase, and that novel edits in MTL lead to a 6.7% haploid induction rate (the percentage of haploid progeny versus total progeny). Wild-type MTL protein localizes exclusively to sperm cytoplasm, and pollen RNA-sequence profiling identifies a suite of pollen-specific genes overexpressed during haploid induction, some of which may mediate the formation of haploid seed. These findings highlight the importance of male gamete cytoplasmic components to reproductive success and male genome transmittance. Given the conservation of MTL in the cereals, this discovery may enable development of in vivo haploid induction systems to accelerate breeding in crop plants.

Indexed as

Frameshift MutationHaploidyAllelesBreedingCytoplasmFertilizationGene EditingGene Expression Regulation, PlantGenes, PlantGenetic Complementation TestPhenotypePhospholipasesPlant ProteinsPollenSeedsSequence Analysis, RNAPhospholipasesPlant Proteins

Identifiers

PMID28114299
OpenAlexW2581153077

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.