Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
2. Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Abstract
Grain size is one of the most frequently selected traits during domestication and modern breeding. The continued discovery and characterization of new genes and alleles in controlling grain size are important in safeguarding the food supply for the world’s growing population. Previously, a small grain size was observed in a rice restorer line ‘Fuhui212’, while the underlying genetic factors controlling this trait were unknown. In this study, by combining QTL mapping, variant effect prediction, and complementation experiments, we recovered a novel allele RGA1-FH that explains most of the phenotypic changes. The RGA1-FH allele contains an A-to-T splicing site variant that disrupts the normal function of RGA1. While population analysis suggests extremely strong artificial selection in maintaining a functional allele of RGA1, our study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to prove that a dysfunctional RGA1 allele can also be beneficial in real agricultural production. Future breeding programs would benefit from paying more attention to the rational utilization of those overlooked ‘unfavored’ alleles.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Inorganic Chemistry,Organic Chemistry,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry,Computer Science Applications,Spectroscopy,Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Catalysis
Cited by
1 articles.
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