| The inflorescence structure of cereal crops influences the number of grains per plant and grain yield directly, and its diversity mainly depends on branching pattern and flower location. Great progress has been made in the regulation mechanism of inflorescence structure in rice, a model plant of the major cereal crops. An overview of the regulatory factors of inflorescence development will be helpful for genetic improvement of rice panicle architecture and high-yield breeding. The development of rice inflorescence begins with the transition from shoot apical meristem to inflorescence meristem, and then rachis meristem, primary branch meristem, secondary branch meristem, spikelet meristem and floret meristem generate sequentially. Inflorescence-related meristems are regulated by a great number of genes, forming a complex genetic network. Changes in any link during the inflorescence development can alter the panicle architecture. Regulating the spatiotemporal expression of genes affecting inflorescence development and combining related excellent alleles are more conducive to optimizing rice panicle architecture in the improvement process. The panicle architecture is selected and modified to increase the number of spikelets during rice domestication. Therefore, the research on the factors affecting rice inflorescence development will be beneficial to the genetic improvement of rice panicle architecture and provide theoretical support for molecular design breeding. In the study, the factors affecting the development of rice inflorescence are listed, and the paths of these factors in the process of regulating inflorescence structure are summarized. The study of the genetic regulatory network of inflorescence structure in rice as a model crop will provide an important reference for studying the inflorescence development in other cereals. |
