LSCHL4 from Japonica Cultivar, Which Is Allelic to NAL 1, Increases Yield of Indica Super Rice 93-11

The basic premise of high yield in rice is to improve leaf photosynthetic efficiency and coordinate the sourcesink relationship in rice plants. Quantitative trait loci （QTLs） related to morphological traits and chlorophyll content of rice leaves were detected at the stages of heading to maturity, and a major QTL （qLSCHL4） related to flag leaf shape and chlorophyll content was detected at both stages in recombinant inbred lines constructed using the indica rice cultivar 93-11 and the japonica rice cultivar Nipponbare. Map-based cloning and expression analysis showed that LSCHL4 is allelic to NAL1, a gene previously reported in narrow leaf mutant of rice. Overexpression lines transformed with vector carrying LSCHL4 from Nipponbare and a near-isogenic line of 93-11 （NIL-9311） had significantly increased leaf chlorophyll content, enlarged flag leaf size, and improved panicle type. The average yield of NIL-9311 was 18.70% higher than that of 93-11. These results indicate that LSCHL4 had a pleiotropic function. Exploring and pyramiding more high-yield alleles resem- bling LSCHL4 for super rice breeding provides an effective way to achieve new breakthroughs in raising rice yield and generate new ideas for solving the problem of global food safety.

Genetic Analysis and Gene-Mapping of Two Reduced-Culm-Number Mutants in Rice

In the present study, In order to systematically dissect the genetic mechanism of rice （Oryza satlva L.） tilling for the super rice ideotype and the model system of branching development, two ethyl methane suifonate-induced rice reduced-culm-number（rcn） mutants from the progeny of Nippobare （O. satlva ssp. japonica）, namely rcn8 and rcn9, were used. Their maximum tillers were both less than 4. in addition, rcn9 had another major feature of rust-spotted leaves. Allelic tests between these two mutants and seven other recessive few-tiller mutants revealed that they were previously unknown loci. Genetic analysis showed that the rcn traits were all controlled by a pair of different recessive genes, designated as RCN8and RCNg, respectively. Two F2 populations derived from crosses between the rcn8 or rcn9 mutants and 93-11 were constructed. Linkage analysis using two rcn F2 mapping populations with published simple sequence repeat markers demonstrated that the RCN8 and RCN9 genes were mapped on the long arm of chromosome 1 （119.6 cM） and the short arm of chromosome 6 （63.6 cM）, respectively. The results of the present study are beneficial to map-based cloning and functional analysis of the RCN8 and RCN9 genes.

Reduction of OsFLW7 expression enhanced leaf area and grain production in rice

Increasing rice production is important to ensure food security in China[1].Exploring yield potential and identifying genes beneficial to yield are important goals in the modern rice breeding.Generally,controlling leaf morphology,increasing photosynthesis efficiency and modulating the‘‘sink-source"relationship can promote the breeding of high-yield rice as well as other cereal crops[2–4].The morphology of the leaf includes length,width