Fig. 1.

The phenotype of the rice leaf senescence mutant nbl1. a The picture of nbl1 mutant and wild-type (WT) plants grown in greenhouse at seedling stage. Scale bar = 15 cm. (b-c) The whole plants (b) and flag leaves (c) of nbl1, T1-H and WT plants grown under paddy filed were photographed at tillering stage. T1-H indicates the heterologous nbl1 offspring. Scale bar = 20 cm. d Flag leaves of nbl1 and WT plants grown under paddy filed at heading stage were divided into base (B), middle (M), and top (T), and the three sections of leaves were used to determine total chlorophyll content, respectively. Data are means ± SD (n=3). **P < 0.01 (Student’s t-test). e-i Transcription levels of five senescence-associated maker genes were analyzed by RT-qPCR and normalized to that of the OsACTIN1 gene. Total RNA was extracted from the leaves of nbl1 and WT plants at seedling stage. Data represent means ± SD (n=3). **P < 0.01 (Student’s t-test)