Isolation and identification of genes expressed differentially in rice inflorescence meristem with suppression subtractive hybridization

A subtracted cDNA library of rice (Oryza sativa L.) inflorescence meristem (IM) was constructed using the suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method. The cDNAs of the rice shoot apical meristem (SAM) were used as "dri ver" and inflorescence meristem (IM) as "tester" in the experiment, respect ively. Forty of 250 randomly chosen cDNA clones were identified by differen tial screening, which were IM-specific or IM-highly expressed, Most of the rife IR I cDNAs cloned by SSH appear to represent rare transcripts, 40% of which mere derived from truly differentially expressed genes. Of all the fo rty sequenced cDNA inserts, eleven contain the regions with 60%-90% identit y to their homolog in GenBank, eighteen are expected to be new genes, only two correspond to published rice genes.