A simple approach to identify the first rice mutants blocked in carotenoid biosynthesis

Mutations blocking carotenoid biosynthesis, never before described for rice, are valuable for pathway manipulation and study. Similar to defects in ABA biosynthesis, mutations blocking the carotenoid pathway confer vivipary, but in addition also confer an albino seedling phenotype. Pigments extracted from rice mutants exhibiting the double mutant phenotype were analysed by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography); these results led to the identification of the first rice mutant accumulating an intermediate of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, phytoene, and a second mutant with almost no detectable carotenoids.