Agriculturally important grasses contain numerous diazotrophic bacteria, the interactions of which are speculated to have some other benefits to the host plants. In this study, we analyzed the effects of a bacterial endophyte, Azospirillum sp. B510, on disease resistance in host rice plants. Rice plants (Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare) were inoculated with B510 exhibited enhanced resistance agains...

Plant remains dating to between 9000 and 8400 BP from a probable ditch structure at the Huxi site include the oldest rice (Oryza sativa) spikelet bases and associated plant remains recovered in China. The remains document an early stage of rice domestication and the ecological setting in which early cultivation was taking place. The rice spikelet bases from Huxi include wild (shattering), inter...

Oryza meyeriana Baill (GG genome) is a precious germplasm in the tertiary gene pool of cultivated rice (AA genome), and possesses important traits such as resistance and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. However, interspecific crossability barrier, a critical bottleneck restricting genes transfer from O. meyeriana to cultivars has led to no hybrids through conventional reproduction. There...

Grain weight is a major component of rice grain yield and is controlled by quantitative trait loci. Previously, a rice grain weight quantitative trait locus (qGW6) was detected near marker RM587 on chromosome 6 in a backcross population (BC2F2) derived from a cross between Oryza rufipogon IRGC105491 and O. sativa cv. MR219. Using a BC2F5 population, qGW6 was validated and mapped to a region of ...

Genealogical patterns in different genomic regions may be different due to the joint influence of gene flow and selection. The existence of two subspecies of cultivated rice provides a unique opportunity for analyzing these effects during domestication. We chose 66 accessions from the three rice taxa (about 22 each from Oryza sativa indica, O. sativa japonica, and O. rufipogon) for whole-genome...

The present report explores the chromosomal patterns during meiosis as a fundamental cell division study in wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.). Cytological assays revealed normal meiosis in most cases but in some instances meiotic abnormalities such as weak desynapsis, univalent and quadrivalent formation, translocation, spindle abnormalities and precocious movement of chromosomes were noticed....

The family of plant membrane transporters named HKT (for High-affinity K + Transporters) can be subdivided into sub-families 1 and 2, which respectively comprise Na +-selective transporters and transporters able to function as Na +-K + symporters, at least when expressed in yeast or Xenopus oocytes. Surprisingly, a subfamily 2 member from rice (Oryza sativa),

Dickeya zeae is an emerging rice (Oryza sativa) pathogen causing bacterial foot rot. Related pathogens affect maize (Zea mays) and potato (Solanum tuberosum) and a variety of important ornamental and floral plants. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of D. zeae DZ2Q, an isolate obtained from rice grown in Italy.

The OsCPK4 gene is a member of the complex gene family of calcium-dependent protein kinases in rice (Oryza sativa). Here, we report that OsCPK4 expression is induced by high salinity, drought, and the phytohormone abscisic acid. Moreover, a plasma membrane localization of OsCPK4 was observed by transient expression assays of green fluorescent protein-tagged OsCPK4 in onion (Allium cepa) epiderm...

Rc is a domestication-related gene required for red pericarp in rice (Oryza sativa). The red grain color is ubiquitous among the wild ancestors of O. sativa, in which it is closely associated with seed shattering and dormancy. Rc encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein that was fine-mapped to an 18.5-kb region on rice chromosome 7 using a cross between Oryza rufipogon (red pericarp) and...