Abstract
Expression profiling of aquaporin genes was studied on anthers of 2 varieties of rice plants, Hitomebore and Hidekomochi, Japonica cultivar. Hitomebore is a cool-temperature-tolerant strain that suppresses male sterility in less than 20% of spikelets when it is exposed to cool temperature.
Pollen development is accompanied with drastic change of water content in the anther. We studied expression of 35 aquaporin genes referred to PIPs, TIPs, NIPs and SIPs on whole tissues of anthers during pollen development. 13 genes of them were further studied on the expression levels during the microgametogenesis including pollen mitosis I when the tapetum cells undergo programmed cell death.
Expression of 6 genes including PIPs, TIPs, NIPs and SIPs in both strains decreased approximately tenth after the tetrad stage in the control. Some of these genes, however, did not decrease or increased in the anther of Hidekomochi strain under the cool temperature.
