Abstract
Cytokinins (CKs) are required to maintain the shoot apical meristem(SAM). LONELY GUY (LOG) gene of rice, encoding a CKs activating enzyme, controls meristem activity. The SAM of log-6 is smaller than that of WT from early embryogenesis and terminates prematurely. The reduction of SAM size is caused by the decrease in the meristem cell number, suggesting that LOG promotes cell proliferation in the SAM.
To investigate how meristem cell number is regulated by CKs, we examined the phenotype of LOG over-expression (LOGox)ansgenic plants. LOGox plants seem to be normal except that LOGox plants produce multiple embryo seeds frequently. These results indicate that CKs play an important role for the formation of the SAM in embryogenesis. We will discuss the function of CKs in early embryogenesis of rice.
