dull: rice mutants with tissue-specific effects on the splicing of the waxy pre-mRNA

In the endosperm of japonica rice, du-1 and du-2 mutations cause the reduct ion of amylose contents. It was previously shown that the Wx(b) allele of r ice, which is predominantly distributed in japonica rice, has a mutation in the 5' splice site of intron 1 resulting in the creation of two weak 5' sp lice sites within exon 1. In du-1 and du-2 mutants, spliced Wx(b) transcrip ts were highly reduced, whereas the processing of transcripts derived from three other genes highly expressed in endosperm was not apparently influenc ed. Results of competitive RT-PCR analysis indicate that transcripts splice d at the two newly created 5' splice sites were equally affected in these t wo mutants. Genetic and molecular analyses of the effects of du-1 and du-2 on Wx(a) pre-mRNA with normal splice sites indicate that these two mutation s do not affect the processing of Wx(a) pre-mRNA after splicing, suggesting that du-1 and du-2 are mutations of genes required for the efficient splic ing of mutated Wx(b) pre-mRNA. Furthermore, du-1 and du-2 showed differenti al effects in endosperm and pollen. Although both mutations caused similar effects on the splicing of Wx(b) transcripts in endosperm, du-1 caused high er reduction of Wx(b) mRNA in pollen than in endosperm, while du-2 had a le sser effect in pollen than in endosperm. Based on these results, we propose that the du-1 and du-2 loci of rice encode tissue-specifically regulated s plicing factors that are involved in alternative splicing of pre mRNA in ri ce.