Proceedings of the XLVII Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Verona, Italy - 24/27 September, 2003

ISBN 88-900622-4-X

Oral Communication Abstract - S1f

MADS-BOX TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS CONTROLLING THE FLORAL TRANSITION IN RICE

M.M. KATER*, F. FORNARA**, N. PELUCCHI**, V. GREGIS**, R. RIZZARDI*, G. FALASCA***, M. ALTAMURA***, L. COLOMBO**

*) Dipartimento di Scienze Biomolecolari e Biotecnologie

**) Dipartimento di Biologia, Università, degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 26, 20133 Milano, Italy

***) Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università La Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma

MADS-box, flowering, development

MADS-box transcription factors have shown to be key regulators of plant developmental processes. The best studied MADS-box genes are those involved in flower development. In Arabidopsis several of them have been shown to control the switch from vegetative to reproductive development, which include AP1, FUL, SVP and AGL24. We have isolated 3 MADS-box genes from rice, OsMADS18, OsMADS22 and OsMADS47 that are homologous to these genes.

OsMADS18 and OsMADS22 are expressed in all tissues analyzed, whereas OsMADS47 is expressed only in leaves. We are analyzing the function of these genes to understand whether these rice MADS-box genes play similar roles in rice. For these analyses we use overexpression and RNA interference strategies.

Overexpression of OsMADS18 induces early flowering. Detailed histological analyses of these transgenic plants showed that this early flowering phenotype is probably the result of an acceleration of the maturation of these transgenic plants.

To study the conservation of the function of these MADS-box genes between monocot and dicot plants we have used the rice genes to complement the Arabidopsis mutants.