Reference "Overexpression of RCN1 and RCN2, rice TERMINAL FLOWER 1/CENTRORADIALIS homologs, confers delay of phase transition and altered panicle morphology in rice"

Reference ID

9520

Title

Overexpression of RCN1 and RCN2, rice TERMINAL FLOWER 1/CENTRORADIALIS homologs, confers delay of phase transition and altered panicle morphology in rice

Source

The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology, 2002, vol. 29, pp. 743-750

Authors (3)

Nakagawa-M	Shimamoto-K
Kyozuka-J

Abstract

TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1)/CENTRORADIALIS (CEN)-like genes play important roles in
determining plant architecture, mainly by controlling the timing of phase
transition. To investigate the possibility of similar mechanisms operating in
the control of inflorescence architecture in rice, we analysed the functions of
RCN1 and RCN2, rice TFL1/CEN homologs. Constitutive overexpression of RCN1 or
RCN2 in Arabidopsis caused a late-flowering and highly branching phenotype,
indicating that they possess conserved biochemical functions as TFL1. In
35S::RCN1 and 35S::RCN2 transgenic rice plants, the delay of transition to the
reproductive phase was observed. The transgenic rice plants exhibited a more
branched, denser panicle morphology. Detailed observation of the panicle
structure revealed that the phase change from the branch shoot to the floral
meristem state was also delayed, leading to the generation of higher-order
panicle branches. These results suggest rice has a pathway that can respond to
the overexpressed TFL1/CEN-like functions, and the molecular mechanisms
controlling the phase transition of meristems are conserved between grass and
dicot species, at least to some extent.