Rice arabinogalactan protein (AGP) gene identified

In a recent report published in the Transgenic Res. 2009 Sep 22., authors Anand and Tyagi, identified a cDNA for the gene encoding the arabinogalactan protein (AGP) . The cDNA (586bp) isolated from the Oryza sativa indica cDNA library was shown to be  expressing preferentially in the inflorescence. The gene is shown to have pollen-specific and light-regulatory elements in its promoter.  The gene is reported to be an ortholog of Arabidopsis thaliana gene AGP23 (AT3G57690). The authors also report that the homologous gene in O. sativa japonica cv. Nipponbare genome is located on chromosome-6 (chr-6).

Based on the findings of the authors Anand and Tyagi and the gene homology (orthologs and paralogs)  information provided by the Gramene Database we find that there are two protein coding gene loci on chr-6 namely LOC_Os06g21410 and LOC_Os06g40990 potentially encode for the arabinogalactan proteins.

As part of our community outreach we encourage researchers to help us annotate the gene by visiting the respective rice AGP gene page in the PlantGeneWiki community annotation tool. For help at any time please visit the Demo pages on PlantGeneWiki.