Identification and gene mapping of a narrow and upper-albino leaf mutant in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The leaf blade consists of color and shape traits. Studies of leaf-blade development are important for improvement of rice yield and quality because it is an essential organ for photosynthesis. A narrow and upper-albino leaf mutant (nul1) was identified from among progeny of the indica restorer line Jinhui10 raised from seeds treated with ethyl methane sulfonate. Under field conditions, the mutant displayed narrow and upper-albino leaf blades with significantly decreased photosynthetic pigment contents throughout their development. The narrow-leaf trait is caused by a decreased number of small veins. In contrast to the wild type, the growth period was extended by approximately 8 d and agronomic traits, such as effective panicle number, percentage seed set and 1000-grain weight, declined significantly in the nul1 mutant. Genetic analysis suggested that the narrow and upper-albino leaf characteristics showed coseparation and were controlled by one recessive gene. The Nul1 gene was mapped onto chromosome 7 between the Indel marker Ind07-1 and the Simple Sequence Repeat marker RM21637. The physical distance between the markers was 75 kb and eight genes were annotated in this region based on the rice Nipponbare genome sequence. These results provide a foundation for cloning and function analysis of Nul1.