An elite allele TaNPF7.6-A1mod enhances nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in wheat

An elite allele TaNPF7.6-A1mod enhances nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in wheat | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article An elite allele TaNPF7.6-A1mod enhances nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in wheat Weigang Xu, Di Jiang, Chaojun Peng, Yan Li, Chen Gong, Yuhui Fang, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9009137/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Breeding wheat varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) effectively reduces threats to the ecological environment and production costs. Here, this study identifies TaNPF7.6-A1 as a positive regulator of NUE in wheat through candidate-gene and genome-wide association studies. A widely conserved polymorphism in the coding region of TaNPF7.6-A1 produces an allele, TaNPF7.6-A1mod, that has a higher transcriptional level and nitrate transport activity, resulting in greater NUE than TaNPF7.6-A1lan. We also discovered a novel mechanism of TaEIL3-TaJAZ1-TaNPF7.6-A1 regulating NUE in wheat: TaNPF7.6-A1mod interacts more strongly with TaJAZ1 and promotes the retention of nuclear-localized TaJAZ1 in the cytoplasm than TaNPF7.6-A1lan does. TaJAZ1 interact with TaEIL3 and repress TaEIL3 binding to the TaNPF7.6-A1mod promoter, thereby influencing alleles’ expression and causing phenotypic differences. TaNPF7.6-A1mod also shows significant geographical distribution aggregation globally and has undergone continuous positive selection during the breeding process. Overall, this study provides molecular and evolutionary insights into the regulation of NUE. Biological sciences/Genetics/Agricultural genetics Biological sciences/Genetics/Cytogenetics Biological sciences/Genetics/Genotype Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementalData5.xlsx Supplemental Data 5 DescriptionofAdditionalSupplementaryData.pdf Description of Additional Supplementary Data SupplementalData3.xlsx Supplemental Data 3 SupplementalData1.xlsx Supplemental Data 1 SupplementalData10.xlsx Supplemental Data 10 SupplementalData11.xlsx Supplemental Data 11 SupplementalData9.xlsx Supplemental Data 9 SupplementalFigures.pdf Supplemental Figures SupplementalData6.xlsx Supplemental Data 6 SupplementalData2.xlsx Supplemental Data 2 SupplementalData8.xlsx Supplemental Data 8 SupplementalData12.xlsx Supplemental Data 12 SupplementalData13.xlsx Supplemental Data 13 SupplementalData7.xlsx Supplemental Data 7 SupplementalData4.xlsx Supplemental Data 4 reportingsummary.pdf Reporting Summary Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9009137","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":600936678,"identity":"3bfcf1c0-6b4a-4143-998b-9d8e3f7429df","order_by":0,"name":"Weigang 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wheat","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9009137/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9009137/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Breeding wheat varieties with high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) effectively reduces threats to the ecological environment and production costs. Here, this study identifies TaNPF7.6-A1 as a positive regulator of NUE in wheat through candidate-gene and genome-wide association studies. A widely conserved polymorphism in the coding region of TaNPF7.6-A1 produces an allele, TaNPF7.6-A1mod, that has a higher transcriptional level and nitrate transport activity, resulting in greater NUE than TaNPF7.6-A1lan. We also discovered a novel mechanism of TaEIL3-TaJAZ1-TaNPF7.6-A1 regulating NUE in wheat: TaNPF7.6-A1mod interacts more strongly with TaJAZ1 and promotes the retention of nuclear-localized TaJAZ1 in the cytoplasm than TaNPF7.6-A1lan does. TaJAZ1 interact with TaEIL3 and repress TaEIL3 binding to the TaNPF7.6-A1mod promoter, thereby influencing alleles’ expression and causing phenotypic differences. TaNPF7.6-A1mod also shows significant geographical distribution aggregation globally and has undergone continuous positive selection during the breeding process. Overall, this study provides molecular and evolutionary insights into the regulation of NUE.","manuscriptTitle":"An elite allele TaNPF7.6-A1mod enhances nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in wheat","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-08 08:29:17","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9009137/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"b35cd17c-4a44-407d-a697-a1a01cee2e79","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 8th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":63951265,"name":"Biological sciences/Genetics/Agricultural genetics"},{"id":63951266,"name":"Biological sciences/Genetics/Cytogenetics"},{"id":63951267,"name":"Biological sciences/Genetics/Genotype"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-01T14:47:07+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-08 08:29:17","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9009137","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9009137","identity":"rs-9009137","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}