Spotted-Leaf Mutants of Rice (Oryza sativa)

Many rice spotted-leaf (spl) mutants are ideal sources for understanding the mechanisms involved in blast resistance, bacterial blight resistance and programmed cell death in plants. The genetic controls of 50 spotted-leaf mutants in rice have been characterized and a few spotted-leaf genes have been isolated as well. This article reviews the origin, genetic modes, isolation and characterization of spotted-leaf genes responsible for their phenotypes, and their resistance responses to main rice diseases.