Rna sequencing of Osmads13 mutants
In angiosperms, floral homeotic genes encoding MADS-domain transcription factors regulate the development of all floral organs. In particular, members of the SEPALLATA (SEP) and AGAMOUS (AG) subfamilies form higher order protein complexes to control Floral Meristem determinacy and to specify the identity of female reproductive organs. In rice, the AG subfamily gene OsMADS13 is intimately involved in the determination of ovule identity, since knock-out mutant plants develop carpel-like structures in the place of ovules resulting in female sterility. Little is known about the regulatory pathways at the base of rice seed development. To further investigate molecular mechanisms acting downstream of OsMADS13, we compared the transcriptomes of immature inflorescences from wild type andosmads13 mutants . Among a total of476 Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs), a substantial overlap with DEGs from the SEP-family osmads1 mutant suggests that OsMADS1 and OsMADS13 may act on a common set of target genes. Preliminary analyses of two upregulated Zinc-finger transcription factor encoding genes, indicate thatour dataset represents a valuable resource forthe identification of both OsMADS13 target genes and novel key molecular drivers of rice ovule development. Taken together, our study sustains the hypothesis that OsMADS13 is an important repressor of the carpel pathway during ovule development.