{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,5]],"date-time":"2026-09-05T05:18:39Z","timestamp":1788585519415,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788134400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2021YFF1000203"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFF1000203"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Nitrogen (N) is essential for crop growth, yet excessive fertilization causes environmental issues, highlighting the need to sustain yield and grain N concentration under reduced N input. miR396s are known to regulate plant development and stress responses. Here, we examined whether and how miR396 affects wheat yield and N status under high and low N conditions. TaMIM396 (transforming with the target mimicry construct of miR396) overexpression significantly increased plant height, spike length, grain yield, and grain N concentration under both N treatments. Physiological data showed TaMIM396 enhanced dry matter (DM) and N accumulation at anthesis and maturity, as well as improved post-anthesis remobilization of DM and N to grains. RNA-seq analysis revealed that, under low N, TaMIM396 specifically upregulated key photosynthetic antenna genes, including Lhca3 and Lhcb1\/2\/3\/5, which are critical for light harvesting, suggesting improved photosynthetic efficiency that promotes DM accumulation under N limitation. Collectively, our results demonstrate that TaMIM396 acts as a broad-spectrum N-efficiency gene, coordinating carbon and N remobilization while boosting photosynthetic capacity, thereby supporting stable yield and grain N concentration across N supply levels. Therefore, TaMIM396 is a promising candidate for breeding N-efficient wheat cultivars compatible with sustainable high-yield agriculture.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants15172676","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T01:05:26Z","timestamp":1788224726000},"page":"2676","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Investigating the Role of MicroRNA396 (miR396) Gene in Regulating Wheat Yield and Grain Nitrogen Concentration"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Yue","family":"Yin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5469-500X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yanwen","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"},{"name":"The Shennong Laboratory, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Zongliang","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yonghui","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Zhiyun","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, 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China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Danhong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8855-6617","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mingyue","family":"Gou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"},{"name":"The Shennong Laboratory, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4363-6052","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaohuan","family":"Mu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Production of Wheat-Maize Double Cropping, Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops, Center for Crop Genome Engineering, College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China"},{"name":"The Shennong Laboratory, Zhengzhou 450046, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Marschner, P. 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