亚洲季风季节的洪涝灾害会对水稻作物造成广泛破坏。一些品种的水稻已通过形成使茎秆迅速加长的能力而适应了这种环境压力。正常情况下，这种类型的水稻可长到约一米高，但当发生洪涝时，其茎秆会发生迅速的、急剧的中间节增长，能长到几米高，其高度由水位决定。
Hattori等人识别出了触发深水水稻中间节增长的基因，它们分别是SNORKEL 1 和 SNORKEL 2。这两个基因编码调控气态植物激素乙烯信号作用的转录因子。将这些基因导入高产栽培品种中，有可能帮助易发生洪涝地区水稻增产。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature 460, 1026-1030 (20 August 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08258
The ethylene response factors SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2 allow rice to adapt to deep water
Yoko Hattori1, Keisuke Nagai1, Shizuka Furukawa1, Xian-Jun Song1, Ritsuko Kawano3, Hitoshi Sakakibara4, Jianzhong Wu5, Takashi Matsumoto5, Atsushi Yoshimura3, Hidemi Kitano1, Makoto Matsuoka1, Hitoshi Mori2 & Motoyuki Ashikari1
1 Bioscience and Biotechnology Center,
2 Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
3 School of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
4 Plant Science Center, RIKEN, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan
5 National Institute of Agrobiological Resources, Tsukuba 305-8602, Japan
Living organisms must acquire new biological functions to adapt to changing and hostile environments. Deepwater rice has evolved and adapted to flooding by acquiring the ability to significantly elongate its internodes, which have hollow structures and function as snorkels to allow gas exchange with the atmosphere, and thus prevent drowning1, 2, 3. Many physiological studies have shown that the phytohormones ethylene, gibberellin and abscisic acid are involved in this response4, 5, 6, 7, 8, but the gene(s) responsible for this trait has not been identified. Here we show the molecular mechanism of deepwater response through the identification of the genes SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2, which trigger deepwater response by encoding ethylene response factors involved in ethylene signalling. Under deepwater conditions, ethylene accumulates in the plant and induces expression of these two genes. The products of SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2 then trigger remarkable internode elongation via gibberellin. We also demonstrate that the introduction of three quantitative trait loci from deepwater rice into non-deepwater rice enabled the latter to become deepwater rice. This discovery will contribute to rice breeding in lowland areas that are frequently flooded during the rainy season.
