水稻分蘖的分子机理研究

Progress in Elucidating the Molecular Mechanism of Rice Tillering

分蘖是水稻等禾谷类作物最重要的农艺性状之一,它直接决定着水稻穗数的多少并进而影响水稻单位面积的产量;分蘖又是单子叶植物一种特殊的分枝现象,具有重要的发育生物学意义。我们与合作者共同努力,克隆了控制水稻分蘖的关键基因MOC1,并对其作用机理进行了初步分析,部分研究结果已发表在2003年4月10日出版的Nature上[1]。

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world population. Tillering in rice is one of the most important agronomical traits that determine grain yield. Tillering is also of developmental importance because tiller is a special type of branches, which is quite different from that of dicot plants. We recently reported in Nature the isolation and functional characterization of a novel gene MOC1that controls tillering in rice. Here we briefly described the main discoveries and impact of this work.