FLOWERING TIME CONTROL PROTEIN, FPA gene encode RNA Recognition Motif (RRM) domain protein and plays important roles in flowering time control in Arabidopsis. Floral transition is significant for reproductive products in all flowering plants. However, little is known about the functions of Medicago autonomous pathway gene. We had cloned the FPA gene on Medicago based on the sequence similarity of Arabidopsis FPA sequence. The RT-qPCR analysis of MtFPA expression patterns showed that the MtFPA transcripts accumulated ubiquitously in roots, leaves, stems, flowers, and pods. When fused to the green fluorescence protein, MtPFA-GFP was localized in the nucleus as speckle pattern of protoplast from Arabidopsis. To examine the function of MtFPA, 35S::MtFPA transgenic plants were generated in Arabidopsis late flowering mutant background, fpa-2. Overexpression of MtFPA specifically caused early flowering under long day conditions compared with non-transgenic plants. In MtFPA transgenic lines, AtFLC expression were down-regulated whereas the floral integrators, AtFT and AtSOC1 were up-regulated as compare with control plant. As these results, MtFPA suggest that is a functional ortholog of the Arabidopsis and may play an important role in the regulation of flowering transition in Medicago.

The required for Mla12 resistance (RAR1) protein is essential for the plant immune response. In rice, a model monocot species, the function of Oryza sativa RAR1 (OsRAR1) has been little explored. In our current study, we characterized the response of a rice osrar1 T-DNA insertion mutant to infection by Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of rice blast disease. osrar1 mutants displayed reduced resistance compared with wild type rice when inoculated with the normally virulent M. oryzae isolate PO6-6, indicating that OsRAR1 is required for an immune response to this pathogen. We also investigated the function of OsRAR1 in the resistance mechanism mediated by the immune receptor genes Pib and Pi5 that encode nucleotide binding-leucine rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins. We inoculated progeny from Pib/osrar1 and Pi5/osrar1 heterozygous plants with the avirulent M. oryzae isolates, race 007 and PO6-6, respectively. We found that only Pib-mediated resistance was compromised by the osrar1 mutation and that the introduction of the OsRAR1 cDNA into Pib/osrar1 rescued Pib-mediated resistance. These results indicate that OsRAR1 is required for Pib-mediated resistance but not Pi5-mediated resistance to M. oryzae.

Disease is one of the significant factors to damage for the crop productivity, including rice. Although there are many methods to avoid from several diseases such as chemical pesticides and biological treatments, it has been appreciated that the most economical and environmentally effective method of disease control is application of resistance genes. A survey (Dardick & Ronald, 2006) reported that plant kinome has a small number of non-RD kinase (nRDK) (4-29% of total kinase), all known or predicted pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) fall into the class. We here introduce a strategy to identify rice resistance genes that are probably encoding PRRs. We selected 130 nRDK genes by combinational analysis of QTL and bioinformatics, 61 of rice mutant lines of 130 candidates inoculated by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and Magnaporthe grisea. (M. grisea), and disease progression was monitored. Lesion lengths of the activation mutant lines for nRDK-08 and nRDK-18 genes reduced more than 34% compared to wild type of rice (Dongjin) and other mutant lines. The nRDK-03 and nRDK-17 gene activation rice line had remarkably smaller lesion lengths by M. grisea infection. Our results suggest that a reverse genetic approach using bioinformatics and T-DNA tagging system successfully identified nRDK genes conferring a resistance against Xoo and M. grisea.