Abstract
During leaf senescence, most of chlorophyll is degraded which results in yellowing, the unmasking process of the preexisting carotenoids in leaves. Several enzyme genes involved in the chlorophyll breakdown pathway have been isolated through biochemical and genetic approaches. nyc1 and nol are also non-functional stay green mutants. Their phenotypes are very similar because NYC1 and NOL form the Chl b reductase complex catalyzing the first step of Chl b degradation.Here we report a new non-functional stay-green mutant in rice, nyc3. nyc3 shows distinct phenotype from nyc1 and nol. Map-based cloning revealed that NYC3 encodes a plastid-localizing α β hydrolase-fold family protein. The possible function of NYC3 in the regulation of chlorophyll degradation is discussed.
