Research Progress of Dwarfing Genes in Plants

The regulation of plant dwarfing is a hot research in genetic breeding. Domestic and foreign scholars have carried out in-depth researches on plant dwarfing mechanism, dwarfing genes, dwarfing genetic breeding and so on. A relatively perfect dwarfing research system has been formed in regard to rice, corn, wheat and other food crops and cucumber, tomato, pumpkin and other horticultural crops. Dwarf plants have compact plant type and small crown width, which can effectively improve lodging resistance, with the advantages of convenient management in production practice. Therefore, dwarf breeding is a development trend of plant breeding. Hormone regulation is a widely used means of dwarfing regulation. Plant hormones change the length and number of internodes by affecting cell division and elongation so as to regulate internode height and achieve the effect of dwarfing plants. Common hormones include gibberellin, brassinolide, auxin ans ethylene, etc. These hormones promote or inhibit the growth and development of plants, which are related to the formation of dwarf mutants, and there are interactions between various hormone signaling pathways. The research status of plant dwarf genes in Gramineae, Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae, the formation of dwarf mutants under hormone regulation, and the cloning and function of dwarfing genes are reviewed. The molecular mechanism and molecular genetics of plant dwarf traits are discussed, which provide a theoretical basis for the subsequent study of plant dwarf genes.