Abstract
A rice epigenetic mutant, Epi-d1, shows a chimeric phenotype, which is combined with the normal and dwarf tillers in one plant body. Positional cloning and allelic test revealed that the Dwarf1 (D1) gene is causal for this phenotype. Switching -on and -off of the D1 expression frequently occurs in this mutant, that is, D1 is expressed in the normal tillers, and not in the dwarf tillers. We detected defference in the methylation status in the 5'-flanking region of the D1 gene between dwarf and normal tillers. We here show a rice epigenetic mutant, Epi-d1 and discuss the cause.
The result suggest that the methylation status at this region of the D1 gene is often changed reversibly and the non-methylated D1 gene can express its product but the methylated gene does not.
We will discuss relationship between unique sequence structure around the D1 gene and its ad hoc methylation.
