TILLERS ABSENT1, the WUSCHEL ortholog, is not involved in stem cell maintenance in the shoot apical meristem in rice.

Stem cell maintenance in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) is very important for plant development and is regulated by the WUSCHEL-CLAVATA (WUS-CLV) feedback loop in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). WUS promotes stem cell identity, whereas CLV negatively regulates stem cell proliferation by repressing WUS expression. We previously showed that, in rice (Oryza sativa), the WUS ortholog TILLERS ABSENT1 (TAB1, also known as OsWUS) has no function in SAM maintenance, whereas it plays a crucial role in axillary meristem development. Recently, we showed that a double mutant of FLORAL ORGAN NUMBER2 (FON2) and ABERRANT SPIKELET AND PANICLE1 (ASP1) led to a marked enlargement of the inflorescence meristem, and that the TAB1 function is not associated with massive stem cells in this meristem. In this paper, we confirmed that TAB1 is also unrelated to the enlargement of the SAM in the vegetative phase of the fon2 and fon2 asp1 mutants. In addition, misexpression of TAB1 under the promoter of FON1 led to a slight reduction of the SAM size in wild type, suggesting that TAB1 is not a positive regulator of stem cells. Taking together, TAB1 seems not to be involved in meristem maintenance, irrespective of the meristem type.