A novel rice grain size gene < i > OsSNB < /i > was identified by genome-wide association study in natural population

by Xiaosong Ma, Fangjun Feng, Yu Zhang, Ibrahim Eid Elesawi, Kai Xu, Tianfei Li, Hanwei Mei, Hongyan Liu, Ningning Gao, Chunli Chen, Lijun Luo, Shunwu Yu

Increasing agricultural productivity is one of the most important goals of plant science research and imperative to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple crops worldwide. Grain size is both a major determinant of grain yield in rice and a target trait for domestication and artificial breeding. Here, a genome-wide association study of grain length and grain width was performed using 996,722 SNP markers in 270 rice accessions. Five and four quantitative trait loci were identified for grain length and grain width, respectively. In particular, the novel grain size geneOsSNB was identified fromqGW7, and further results showed thatOsSNB negatively regulated grain size. Most notably, knockout mutant plants by CRISPR/Cas9 technology showed increased grain length, width, and weight, while overexpression ofOsSNB yielded the opposite. Sequencing of this gene from the promoter to the 3 ’-untranslated region in 168 rice accessions from a wide geographic range identified eight haplotypes. Furthermore, Hap 3 has the highest grain width discovered injaponica subspecies. Compared to other haplotypes, Hap 3 has a 225 bp insertion in the promoter. Based on the difference between Hap 3 and other haplotypes, OsSNB_Indel2 was designed as a functional marker for the improvemen...

Source: PLoS Genetics - May 30, 2019 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Xiaosong Ma Source Type: research