Mechanism of low glutelin content in the “LGC-1” mutant The Low glutelin content ( Lgc-1 ) is a dominant mutation that reduces glutelin content in the rice grain. Glutelin is a major digestible seed storage protein encoded by a multigene family. Kusaba, et al. [33] reported that in Lgc-1 homozygotes, there is a 3.5 kbp deletion between two highly similar glutelin genes that forms a tail-to-tail inverted repeat, that might produce a double stranded RNA molecule, a potent inducer of RNA silencing (Fig. 8). As a result, glutelin synthesis is suppressed and the glutelin content is lowered. The Lgc-1 provides an interesting example of RNA silencing occurring among genes that exhibit various levels of similarity to an RNA-silencing- inducing gene. This was the first report that shows the mechanism of a mutation was RNAi.