Rice (Oryza sativa) is derived from the ancestral wild species Oryza rufipogon, which began to be cultivated about 10,000 years ago. In this process, the morphology of rice has undergone significant changes through human selection. For example, cultivated rice has a more upright stature for dense planting, generates shorter stems to prevent lodging (the bending over of the stem to the ground), and produces more grains in inflorescences compared to its ancestor. Recent molecular genetics has identified numerous important regulators and molecular mechanisms in development. Importantly, many regulators have been utilized as weak alleles in the process of domestication and subsequent breeding. This review aimed to comprehensively summarize a wide range of knowledge in rice developmental biology for each organ, including leaf, stem, inflorescence, and root, and to highlight examples utilized in breeding. This review will help to learn the current understanding of rice morphogenesis and provide a theoretical foundation for future crop improvement.
This work was supported by JSPS Grants (22K06267, 22H02308, 22H02319).
