Primary Research On The High Node Tiller Development Mutant Sfl

Rice is one of the most important food crops worldwide. The growth of rice tillers possess two main processes: the tiller buds formation and elongation of the tiller buds. Our knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of tiller development is still limited. In this paper, we isolated a nice mutant with tillers developed on high nodes and smaller flag leaf, designed as sfl. The characteristic of phenotypeic performance, genetic analysis and gene mapping were investigated on the mutant. The results are summerized as follows:1. During early growth stage, sfl mutant didn't show significant difference in growthperformance with the wild type (Nipponbare).2. After heading, the branched tillers are developed from higher nodes in the mutant.The mutant showed smaller flag leaf with reduced ligule, smaller panicle and shorter distance between nodes compared to the WT.3. Genetic analysis shows that the mutation is controlled by a single recessive gene.4. Map-based cloning revealed that SFL gene is located on chromosome 5 flankingby the markers RM5162 and RM5261 within a region of about 50Kb.5. Seven genes have seen annotated in the mapped region. Sequencing analysis didnot show the mutation in the candidate genes. RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of two candidate genes (Os05g05270 and Os05g05300) were repressed in the flag leaf of the mutant.