Abstract
We isolated a rice orthologous gene to Arabidopsis SCR(OsSCR) and investigated its expression in root and around the shoot apical region. OsSCR was specifically expressed in the endodermis layer and QC cells of root in the rice plant. Interestingly, OsSCR was also expressed at high level in almost cells of young leaf primordia (P1 and P2) except cells, which would form vascular tissues. As progress of the leaf development, the OsSCR expression was localized to the specific cell file, which would develop stomata at the later stage, then the expression was localized into the guard mother cells (GMC) and subsidiary cells. OsSCR expression was down-regulated in GMC when it was divided symmetrically. The expression pattern of OsSCR suggests that OsSCR is involved in the asymmetric cell division not only of the endodermis/cortex initial cells in root but also in the process of stomata development.
