Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2016, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (2): 167-174.DOI: 10.11983/CBB15048

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Characterisation and Gene Mapping of a Brittle Culm Mutant bc-s1 in Rice

Zhenming Jin1, Baozhe Ping1, Haojun Shen2, Huaiqing Du1, Ruiqian Li1, Lu Zhu1, Dabing Zhang1, Zheng Yuan1*   

  1. 1School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China;

    2Shanghai No.3 Girls’ Middle School, Shanghai 200050, China
  • Received:2015-03-06 Revised:2015-06-23 Online:2016-03-01 Published:2016-03-31
  • Contact: Zheng Yuan

Abstract: The mechanical strength of rice stem is an important agronomic trait that affects crop lodging. In this study, a brittle culm mutant, bc-s1, was identified from the rice mutant library. The mutant showed inherited traits of brittleness from bolting to mature stage. Meanwhile, the leaf, leaf sheath, culm, node and seed shell of the mutant showed brittleness during the mature stage. Compared with breaking and elongation force in the wild type, that in bc-s1 culms decreased 31.1% and 67.2%, respectively. Besides showing irregular shape of sclerenchyma cells, in bc-s1, cellulose and lignin content in culm decreased 24.97% and increased 38.82%, respectively. The BC-S1 gene was mapped on chromosome 9 between InDel markers Ha6 and Ha9 within 101 kb physical distance. According to sequencing results for bc-s1, a candidate open reading frame (Os09g25490/OsCesA9), which encodes a cellulose synthase catalytic subunit (CesA), showed a point mutation at the 28th base of first extron, changing GGG to AGG and causing the substitution at the 10th amino acid residue from glycine to arginine. Therefore, bc-s1 is a new allele of OsCesA9 and provides a new material for uncovering the biological function of OsCesA9 in rice cell-wall biosynthesis.