Reference "PLASTOCHRON2 regulates leaf initiation and maturation in rice"

Reference ID

11136

Title

PLASTOCHRON2 regulates leaf initiation and maturation in rice

Source

The Plant cell, 2006, vol. 18, pp. 612-625

Authors (7)

Kawakatsu-T	Itoh-J
Miyoshi-K	Kurata-N
Alvarez-N	Veit-B
Nagato-Y

Abstract

In higher plants, leaves initiate in constant spatial and temporal patterns.
Although the pattern of leaf initiation is a key element of plant shoot
architecture, little is known about how the time interval between initiation
events, termed plastochron, is regulated. Here, we present a detailed analysis
of plastochron2 (pla2), a rice (Oryza sativa) mutant that exhibits shortened
plastochron and precocious maturation of leaves during the vegetative phase and
ectopic shoot formation during the reproductive phase. The corresponding PLA2
gene is revealed to be an orthologue of terminal ear1, a maize (Zea mays) gene
that encodes a MEI2-like RNA binding protein. PLA2 is expressed predominantly in
young leaf primordia. We show that PLA2 normally acts to retard the rate of leaf
maturation but does so independently of PLA1, which encodes a member of the P450
family. Based on these analyses, we propose a model in which plastochron is
determined by signals from immature leaves that act non-cell-autonomously in the
shoot apical meristem to inhibit the initiation of new leaves.