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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Morphological development of rice caryopses located at the different positions in a panicle from early to middle stage of grain filling

Tsutomu Ishimaru, Toshiaki Matsuda, Ryu Ohsugi and Tohru Yamagishi

Functional Plant Biology 30(11) 1139 - 1149
Published: 25 November 2003

Abstract

Rice caryopses show different patterns of grain filling depending on position within a panicle. Caryopses located on the upper primary rachis branches generally accumulate larger amounts of starch at maturity than caryopses located on the secondary rachis branches of the lower primary rachis. In this study, the former and latter types of caryopses were defined as superior and inferior caryopses, respectively. Superior caryopses elongated soon after flowering, whereas inferior caryopses hardly elongated and were morphologically stagnant until the first 4 d after flowering (DAF). However, once inferior caryopses began elongation, their morphological development was the same as superior caryopses until the middle stage of grain filling. Cell division of the inner integument ceased before endosperm cellularization, pericarp functioned as a transient starch storage tissue until endosperm accumulated starch, and endosperm cell number was determined concomitantly with nucellus disintegration. These results implied the coordinated development of the endosperm with maternal tissues. In addition, differences of inner-integument cell number and endosperm cell number were related to a difference of endosperm size between superior and inferior caryopses.

Keywords: endosperm, grain filling, inferior caryopses, maternal tissues, morphological development, Oryza sativa L., rice, superior caryopses.

https://doi.org/10.1071/FP03122

© CSIRO 2003

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