抄録
Two dominant mutants that have short internodes of inflorescence and reduced apical dominant were isolated by screening of 50,000 of RIKEN activation tagging lines. The T-DNA insertion sites of these lines were near each other. Transcription of a gene that encodes a putative bHLH protein near the T-DNA insertion site was increased in these mutants. We made overexpressr of this gene under control of CaMV 35S promoter. The ectopic expression of this bHLH gene recapitulated the original mutant phenotype. We observed yellowish seed color in the overexpressor lines although we could not detect color change in activation tagged mutant. The yellowish seed color of the overexpressor lines were caused by reduction of tannin accumulation in seed coats. This observation suggested that overexpression of this bHLH gene might be involved in tannin biosynthesis or metabolism.
