Identification and Preliminary Analysis of a Male Gametophytic Mutant mga36in Rice

An identified male gametophytic sterile mutant mga36 (Male sterility abortion 36) in rice (Oryza Sativa L.) was resulted with the insertion of a T-DNA. This special sequence flanking T-DNA was isolated with Tail-PCR technique. Blast search result showed that the insertion of T-DNA located in the intron of an unknown protein gene in chromosome 7. RT-PCR expression analysis revealed that, in pollen mature stage, the candidate gene MGA36 had expressed in all test tissues including roots, stems, leaves and spikes. The observation of scanning electron microscope (SEM) for mature pollens with mutant mga36 indicated that 50% the pollens were slightly concave. The study suggested that the gene MGA36 played an important role in the late stage of rice pollen development.