Isolation and Characterization of a Ds-tagged liguleless Mutant in Rice (Oryza sativa. L)

A liguleless mutant, which showed complete loss of lamina joint region at the junction between leaf blade and leaf sheath, was isolated from a Ds insertional mutants derived from the source cultivar, Dongjin. This mutant could not affect other developmental patterns like phyllotaxis. Southern blot analysis, using GUS as a probe, revealed that the liguleless mutant contained three Ds copies transposed in the rice genome. Among the four genomic sequences flanking the Ds, one was mapped in the intergenic region (31661640 - 31661759), and the other two predicted a protein kinase domain (12098980 - 12098667) as an original insertion site within a starter line used for massive production of Ds insertional mutant lines. Another predicted and inserted in first exon of liguleless 1 protein (OsLG1) that was mapped in coding region (LOC_Os04g56170) of chromosome 4. RT-PCR revealed that the OsLG1 gene was not expressed liguleless mutants. Structure analysis of OsLG1 protein revealed that it predicted transcription factor with a highly conserved SBP domain consisting of 79 amino acids that overlapped a nuclear localization signal (NLS). RT-PCR revealed that OsLG1 is mainly expressed in vegetative organs.