Rice grassy stunt virus (RGSV) is a serious threat to rice production in Southeast Asia. RGSV is a member of the genus Tenuivirus, and it induces leaf yellowing, stunting, and excess tillering on rice plants. Here we examined gene responses of rice to RGSV infection to gain insight into the gene responses which might be associated with the disease symptoms. The results indicated that (1) many g...

Heterosis is a common phenomenon in which the hybrids exhibit superior agronomic performance than either inbred parental lines. Although hybrid rice is one of the most successful apotheoses in crops utilizing heterosis, the molecular mechanisms underlying rice heterosis remain elusive. To gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of rice heterosis, comparative leaf proteomic analy...

Axillary meristems (AMs) are secondary shoot meristems whose outgrowth determines plant architecture. In rice, AMs form tillers, and tillering mutants reveal an interplay between transcription factors and the phytohormones auxin and strigolactone as some factors that underpin this developmental process. Previous studies showed that knockdown of the transcription factor gene RFL reduced tillerin...

Plant tillering and related traits are morphologically important components contributing to switchgrass ( L.) biomass yield. The objectives of this study were to estimate broad-sense heritabilities for tillering-related traits, to analyze correlations between biomass yield and the traits, and to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for them. A first-generation selfed population of NL94 plant ...

Studies dedicated to understanding the behavior of pathogens in relation to their hosts are the starting point for any breeding program aimed to develop resistant cultivars. The objective of this study was to analyze the resistance to Septoria tritici Rob in 77 F11 progenies of wheat derived from the three-way cross Tadinia × (Yecora rojo × UC554) in the phenological stages of seedling, tilleri...

Mutant genes, reduced culm number 1 (rcn1) and bunketsuwaito tillering dwarf (d3), affect tiller number in rice (Oryza sativa L.) in opposite directions. The d3 mutant was reported to increase tiller number and reduce plant stature. Our objective was to compare the phenotype of the d3rcn1 double mutant with each single mutant and parental rice cultivar "Shiokari" and to clarify whether the Rcn1...

High resource availability can reduce anti-herbivore resistance (a plant's ability to defend against herbivores and reduce damage) in rice, Oryza sativa L, but may also increase tolerance (a plant's ability to withstand damage by, for example, compensatory growth). Through a series of greenhouse, screenhouse and field experiments, this study examines fitness (survival and development × reproduc...