Male reproductive development involves a complex series of biological events and precise transcriptional regulation is essential for this biological process in flowering plants. Several transcriptional factors have been reported to regulate tapetum and pollen development; however , the transcriptional mechanism underlying Ubisch bodies and pollen wall formation remains less understood.Here, we characterized and isolated a male sterility mutant of TDR INTERACTION PROTEIN 3 (TIP3) in rice. The tip3 mutant displayed smaller and pale yellow anthers without mature pollen grains, abnormal Ubisch bod y morphology,no pollen wall formation as well as delayed tapetum degeneration . Map-based cloning demonstrated thatTIP3 encodes a conserved PHD-finger protein and further study confirmed TIP3 functioned as a transcription factor with transcriptional activation activity. TIP3 is preferentially expressed in the tapetum and microspores during anther development. Moreover, TIP3 can physically interact with TDR which is a key component of the transcriptional cascade in regulating tapetum development and pollen wall formation.Furthermore, disruption of TIP3 changed the expression of several genes involved in tapetum development This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not beenthrough the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead todifferences between this version and the Version of Record.