Specific accumulation of polysaccharide-linked hydroxycinnamoyl esters in the cell walls of irregularly shaped and collapsed internode parenchyma cells of the dwarf rice mutant Fukei 71.

We examined a novel rice mutant, Fukei 71 (Oryza sativa L.), for alterations in the levels of hydroxycinnamoyl esters that are linked to cell wall polysaccharides and lignin units. In this mutant, a recessive mutation at a single locus caused the collapse of parenchyma cells in the internodes. Light microscopy revealed that the abnormal walls of internode parenchyma cells of Fukei 71 were stained by the Mäule reaction, which is specific for syringyl units in phenolic compounds. These walls were not stained by Wiesner's reagent (phloroglucinol-HCl), which reacts cinnamaldehyde in lignin. Levels of p-coumaric acid (PCA) and ferulic acid (FA) were apparently elevated in the abnormal tissue of the mutant. Western blotting analysis with antibodies specific for phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) revealed higher levels of PAL in the abnormal parenchyma tissue of Fukei 71 than in the parenchyma tissue of the parent cultivar Fujiminori. These results and the observation that PAL was produced at a greatly elevated level indicated that the phenylpropanoid pathway that leads to the biosynthesis of polysaccharide-linked FA and PCA was abnormally activated in the irregularly shaped and collapsed internode parenchyma cells, in which the biosynthesis of lignin is normally repressed.