Rice The Ash1 Family Group Protein Methyltransferase Function

We cloned three predicted H3K36 methyl transferases SDG708,SDG724,SDG725 in rice. Recombinant proteins of SDG708 and SDG725 have the specific H3K36 methyltransferase activity in vitro assay. The three GFP fused proteins all localize in the nucleus. Loss of function mutants of SDG725 generated by RNA interference and artificial microRNA display dwarf plant. Together, these results first demonstrate that hi stone H3K36 methyltransferase plays an important role in rice development.