Rice lesion mimic mutants (LMMs) form spontaneous lesions on the leaves during vegetative growth without pathogenic infections. The rice LMM group includes various mutants, including spotted leaf mutants, brown leaf mutants, white-stripe leaf mutants, and other lesion-phenotypic mutants. These LMM mutants exhibit a common phenotype of lesions on the leaves linked to chloroplast destruction caused by the eruption of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the photosynthesis process. This process instigates the hypersensitive response (HR) and programmed cell death (PCD), resulting in lesion formation. The reasons for lesion formation have been studied extensively in terms of genetics and molecular biology to understand the pathogen and stress responses. In rice, the lesion phenotypes of most rice LMMs are inherited according to the Mendelian principles of inheritance, which remain in the subsequent generations. These rice LMM genetic traits have highly developed innate self-defense mechanisms. Thus, although rice LMM plants have undesirable agronomic traits, the genetic principles of LMM phenotypes can be used to obtain high grain yields by deciphering the efficiency of photosynthesis, disease resistance, and environmental stress responses. From these ailing rice LMM plants, rice geneticists have discovered novel proteins and physiological causes of ROS in photosynthesis and defense mechanisms. This review discusses recent studies on rice LMMs for the Mendelian inheritances, molecular genetic mapping, and the genetic definition of each mutant gene.
Keywords: Oryza sativa; hypersensitive response; lesion mimic mutant; programmed cell death; spotted leaf.