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Science 31 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5769, p. 1832
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5769.1832l
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Wild grasses tend to release their mature seed fairly easily to facilitate widespread propagation. Domesticated grasses, such as wheat, rice, maize, and oat crops, do not release their grain as easily, and indeed would be of little value if the grain were to fall willy-nilly to the ground. Li et al. (p. 1936; see the cover and the Brevia by Tanno and Willcox) describe a one-nucleotide substitution in a rice gene that encodes a putative transcription factor that appears to account for this difference. The gene is expressed late in grain development at the junction between the seed and the mother plant.




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