花粉壁可以保护花粉免受外界胁迫伤害，并在授粉过程的雌雄识别中起到重要作用。目前对花粉壁的具体化学组分及其形成的分子调控机制还不是特别清楚。作为重要的粮食作物，水稻雄性生殖器官发育与产量密切相关，因此深入了解水稻花药及花粉发育的分子机制显得尤为重要。我们分离到了一个新的雄性不育突变体dpw3（defective pollen wall 3），表型分析表明该突变体花药四分体时期花粉初生外壁不能正常形成，小孢子细胞膜不能波浪状弯曲，孢粉素前体不能正确组装，小孢子后期不能正常发育，导致花粉败育。序列分析表明DPW3编码一个α-类整合素蛋白，整合素在植物生殖发育过程中的作用目前还没有报道，本项目计划从DPW3在水稻花粉外壁细胞生物学水平上的影响、在水稻不同组织中表达水平、生化功能和调控网络的研究来探索α-类整合素DPW3在控制水稻花粉外壁发育的具体作用机制。揭示DPW3控制花粉外壁形成的新途径。

The exine can protect pollen from environmental stresses, and also plays a significant role in male female interaction during pollination. The composition of pollen wall and the mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis, transport and ploymerization of the monomers remain poorly understood. Rice male reproductive development is closely related to grain yield, thus it is crucial to understand the molecular mechanism of anther and pollen development. This study characterized a novel rice male sterile mutant dpw3 (defective pollen wall 3), which shows the primexine was absent at tetrad stage, sporopollenin monomers can't deposition, microspores development abnormally, resulting the completely male sterility. DPW3 encodes a novel α-integrin like protein and there was no other reported about its function in the plant male reproduction. This study will using the cell biology methods, the expression level in different tissues, biochemical function and regulation network analysis to explore the mechanism of DPW3. It disclosed the DPW3 will afford a new pathway to participate in exine formation.