Hd3a, a Rice Ortholog of the Arabidopsis FT Gene, Promotes Transition to Flowering Downstream of Hd1 under Short-Day Conditions

Heading date 3a (Hd3a) has been detected as a heading-date-related quantitative trait locus in a cross between rice cultivars Nipponbare and Kasalath. A previous study revealed that the Kasalath allele of Hd3a promotes heading under short-day (SD) conditions. High-resolution linkage mapping located the Hd3a locus in a approximately 20-kb genomic region. In this region, we found a candidate gene that shows high similarity to the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene, which promotes flowering in Arabidopsis: Introduction of the gene caused an early-heading phenotype in rice. The transcript levels of Hd3a were increased under SD conditions. The rice Heading date 1 (Hd1) gene, a homolog of CONSTANS (CO), has been shown to…

• JS
  Japan Science and Technology Corporation

  Award: CREST
• MO
  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

  Award: CREST
• MO
  Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
• CR
  Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology