Shengbo He^1* , Wei He^2* , Hongqi Chen³ , Xudong Zhu³ , Jun Yang² , Xiaohe Hu² , Da Luo^1,2

1 School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030; 2 National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032; 3 China National Rice Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310006
Author    Correspondence author
Rice Genomics and Genetics, 2010, Vol. 1, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/rgg.2010.01.0001
Received: 10 Aug., 2010    Accepted: 02 Sep., 2010    Published: 08 Oct., 2010

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He et al., 2009, Characterization and Mapping of Rice Mutants, des2 and des5, Genomics and Applied Biology, 28(1): 1-9

Identification of key regulator genes in the control of spikelet development in panicle, one of the main agronomic traits to determine rice yield, is important to investigate the underlying molecular mechanism and provide the molecular basis for analysis of the agronomic traits. In this study, we have identified a group of mutants with conspicuous reduction of spikelet number, which are designated decreased spikelets (des). Two of the des mutants, des2 and des5, were analyzed in detail. We showed that a single recessive locus was responsible for des2 phenotype, which is located on the long arm of chromosome 6. The des2 locus was cloned and it was found that des2 is a new allele of moc1. Positional cloning and sequence analysis showed that there is a point mutation in the HLH domain-encoding region of LAX gene in des5, indicating that des5 is a new allele of lax. Our data indicate that spikelet development is regulated by the same pathway in the control of development of axillary branches in rice.

Rice mutants; des2; des5; Characterization; Mapping