| Budget Amount *help |
¥43,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥33,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥10,020,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥6,760,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,560,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥10,920,000 (Direct Cost: ¥8,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,520,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥13,390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,090,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥12,350,000 (Direct Cost: ¥9,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,850,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The number of grains produced per inflorescence is a critical determinant of yield in rice. During inflorescence development, meristems grow as a branch to generate further meristems which each terminates as a grain-producing spikelet. In the dominant gain-of-function mutant taw1-D, a delay in spikelet specification causes prolonged branch formation, resulting in increased grain production. We show that the taw1-D2 allele mediates more than a 40% rise in yield per plant in a commercial rice cultivar. In contrast, reduction of TAW1 activity accelerates spikelet formation resulting in a decrease in grain number. TAW1, encoding a nuclear protein of an unknown function, shows intense expression in panicle branch meristems, which then disappears from incipient spikelet meristems. It appears that TAW1 regulates the panicle architecture through suppression of spikelet meristem identity. We thus propose TAW1 as a novel molecular link between grain number and meristem phase change in rice.
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