Analisi funzionale di fattori di trascrizione di tipo MADS coinvolti nello sviluppo fiorale di riso, utilizzando sistemi trasponibili di mais

The work described in this thesis is aimed at the study of the reproductive phase in rice in order to understand the molecular mechanisms that induce the transition to flowering and later affect flower development. MADS-box transcription factors are key regulators of several developmental processes such as embryo development, floral transition and most of all flower development. This thesis focuses on the functional characterization of several MADS-box genes expressed in the rice flower and on the evolutionary comparison between related members of the MADS-box gene family in rice and Arabidopsis (Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5). One of the major problems currently limiting rice research is the absence of large mutant resources. To overcome this problem mutant collections are being developed that will be useful tools for assessing gene function in rice. This thesis describes the constitution of one of these mutant collections, generated through a heterologous tagging system, based on the maize Ac/Ds transposons. The collection is composed of 1000 unique flanking sequence tags, positioned on the 12 pseudomolecules representing the sequenced rice genome (Chapter 7).