Abstract
The number of rice protein-coding genes has been estimated to be 28,540 of which functions of the three fourth have been unknown and 29% exist as multigene families. So, gain-of-function approaches could be useful in addition to loss-of-function strategies for the comprehensive elucidation of rice gene functions. In rice, both the full-length cDNA (FL-cDNA) clones and highly efficient transformation method are available. Accordingly we have been adopting the FOX-hunting system, in which gain-of-function phenotypes of transgenic rice plants overexpressing individual FL-cDNAs are utilized to discover functions of rice genes that would be useful in plant breeding. We have generated ~12,000 FOX-rice plants transformed with a rice-FOX Agrobacterium library comprised of 13,980 FL-cDNA clones from RIKEN. Then, we have produced ~1,800 FOX-rice lines using rice-FOX GATEWAY libraries comprised of 13,823 FL-cDNAs from FAIS. The analyses of dominant phenotypes and introduced cDNAs in individual FOX-rice plants will be presented.
