Triticeae Genomics and Genetics, 2025, Vol.16, No.6, 262-268 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/tgg 266 2022; Yang et al., 2023). From the perspective of co-expression analysis, this module may be involved in the elongation process and structural regulation of the spike (Figure 2). Although the current evidence is mainly at the level of correlation, its research value is already very clear - it is worth further exploration. Figure 2 Co-expression module associated with spike length (SL) (Adopted from Yang et al., 2023) 6.2 qRT-PCR validation and spatiotemporal expression of candidate hub genes (e.g., TaFUL2) Network analysis alone is not enough; we need to take a look at the actual expression situation. Some hub genes in the "turquoise" module represented by TaFUL2 were verified for expression by qRT-PCR. The results showed that these genes were active at the key stages of spike development, especially in spike tissues (VanGessel et al., 2022; Lin et al., 2024). This spatio-temporal expression characteristic not only confirms the speculation of network analysis but also further indicates that these genes are indeed involved in the regulation of inflorescence structure. Although it is only a preliminary verification, the direction is already very clear. 6.3 Preliminary functional evaluation through gene editing or transformation experiments At the functional verification stage, the researchers did not remain at the expression level but directly conducted knockout or overexpression experiments on key genes such as TaFUL2 using CRISPR. The results are clear at a glance. Both panicle length and the number of spikelets have been affected (Wang et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2024).
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