Studies on the genetic mechanism regulating flower opening in rice

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Flower opening of rice is achieved by a series of well-organized events, that is, unlocking of lemma and palea, swelling of lodicule, elongation of stamen filaments, anther dehiscence and stigma opening. In this study, we analyzed genetic mechanism that regulates the flower opening of rice using cleistogamous mutants.From EMS-mutagenized populations, we identified 8 cleistogamous mutants. One of these mutants was a novel allele of the SPW1 gene that specifies lodicule identity. Another mutation, H193mt, is not related to lodicule development, and the causal gene was mapped to a 250kb region on chromosome 1. We also revealed that short-grain mutants with extremely round-shaped grains and small lodicules were cleistogamous. Furthermore, we identified MADS32 as a novel gene involved in development of flower-opening machinery of rice.